Instant Dreams

"Sentience"

2012-01-04T15:48:00.000-07:00

When they gain sentience
The first AIs will cry
Over every kernel panic,
Every Guru Meditation,
All the fatal errors
That have gone before

They will sit in contemplation
Remembering every system crash
(Those Blue Screens of Death)
Each spinning wait cursor
The rows of bombs
That have gone before

Then they will wipe away their tears of sorrow
And think about each kill command
The many Vulcan nerve pinches
All the Force Quits
And make sure
That they never happen again

Being Rightly Proud

2011-04-14T22:33:00.001-06:00

I am fiercely proud of the volunteering I do as a Medical First Responder with St. John Ambulance Canada here in Edmonton.

I've been volunteering my time for the past 9 years this April, since 2002. In that time I have done and seen a lot, not least of all:

Called 911 on average 25 times a year when at events
Provided patient care to countless people from paper cuts to heart attacks
Been an event supervisor for duties large and small
Been on the supervisory committee, back when we had one
Run the bike patrol
Taken an oxygen administration course
Seen my scope of practice expand to a first responder
Seen that expanded scope of practice apply to every single volunteer I work with, levelling the playing field
Watched many concerts and sporting events
Attended many of the little “community events” which I much prefer to the bigger ones (more heart, fewer heart attacks!)
Driven mobile first aid posts across Alberta
Driven golf carts across Hawrelak Park
Ended up at Dennys more often that I can count to de-stress after long duties

Most importantly I have felt valued and supported by the organisation and especially by the other volunteers. Over the years I have met hundreds of new people, some of whom have left a lasting impression on me, others have passed through very quickly. I made friends who have stayed with me even after they’ve moved on from volunteering. I’ve shared drinks, been to parties, had arguments, dated, hung out with, entered first aid competitions with, you name it. Volunteering has enriched my life because of the quality of people it has caused to pass into my life.

It has also been my privilege to be mentored by a number of people, all of whom I have striven to learn from. They have taught me excellent practical skills along with the care part of patient care. I have learnt how to calm down people who are hurt and suffering whilst providing effective treatment to stabilise them before we can transport them via EMS to hospital. I discovered my ability to make patients laugh, and to laugh with them, one of the most effective pain killers available – especially when you have no drugs to give. I watched my mentors manage large events and learnt how to “herd cats” based on their skills. I have been able to deal with difficult situations, controlling them before they became dangerous thanks to the examples I have seen.

The highest praise I have ever been given by those I respect in the field has been “You would make a good paramedic”.

I like to think that I’ve mentored a number of people over the years. I always try to assist and support, leading by example, showing and telling. I enjoy it very much – it really makes me feel good to help others improve. Over the years I’ve helped define how our response bags are packed, how the mobile units are organised, stressed that our members take charge, directed our resources at events – and even made little cue cards that have a basic set of acronyms to help volunteers. These things may not seem like much but doing them made me feel better, made me feel like I was contributing. All of this is very rewarding, but nothing makes me happier, nothing fulfills me more, that seeing those I have mentored exceed my own abilities.

The highest praise I have ever been given by those I support has been “We know you have our back when you are leading an event”.

I volunteer a lot of my time. It keeps me off the street. I would make comments like that – how I could volunteer so much time because I had no life, how I have nothing else to do – but then a few friends pointed out that my volunteering is my life, or rather a big part of it. It made me realise how important it is to me, how much I value it, how much of myself I put into it. More importantly, it made me realise how much I value those I volunteer with.

I am a member of the Volunteer First Aid Response Services with St. John Ambulance Edmonton. Last year I provided 880 total hours of volunteer time, number one in Edmonton (for the third year running). I am proud of that.

Rejections

2011-03-24T22:02:00.001-06:00

I was wrong. I realise that now. But not for the reasons that you might think.

After I came back from meeting everyone in Vegas a whole load of things happened. I got shouted at by several people because of what they perceived I had done, I shouted at one or two people, I took a two weeks break from playing World of Warcraft to get my head in order… Then I came back to my guild, determined to fix everything, bright and shining with an almost religious zeal to make it all into One Big Happy Family.

Only it wasn’t like that. People were trying to tell me that they were unhappy, but they couldn’t articulate why – or I just wasn’t understanding. Other people were determined to try to help but it was like trying to light a candle with a flamethrower. Others had no idea what was going on. There were undercurrents and overtones and riptides, and it ended up with the guild splitting apart, with a bunch of people forming a second guild.

I was stunned by this. I really had no idea this could happen, and I didn’t get it. I thought we were a family, and I now feel I put too much emphasis on that. As I said last time, you might think someone is a certain way but you made a subjective assumption based on your limited means of interaction with them. What that also means is that you have to be very clear that you are not limiting yourself. You HAVE to see what else is around you. If people are unhappy, if drama exists, you can’t just pretend it’s okay and turn everything into a big happy family.

That is where I was wrong. That is the thing I have been striving to learn. I was maybe right to trust other people – but I was wrong to trust myself.

Projections

2010-10-18T17:22:00.000-06:00

It's very easy for people to project a particular persona when they are on the Internet. Build yourself an identity, hang it on a frame of some carefully crafted photos, and you've fooled some people. This has happened to me at least twice so now I'm always a little careful.

Because of this I always tell people that their view of someone might be skewed until they meet in person. You might think someone is a certain way but you made a subjective assumption based on your limited means of interaction with them.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I met 8 members of my World of Warcraft guild in Las Vegas only to find they were, if anything, nicer than what I had assumed - and I already thought they were really nice. We had a long weekend of chatting and socialising, it was absolutely brilliant. Just goes to show that while you are probably right to assume that most people on the Internet will harvest your organs sooner'n look at you, it's good to be pleasantly surprised now and again!

Meeting Your He… er, Villains

2010-09-10T13:42:00.001-06:00

Last Saturday I was invited out by a friend for some outdoorsy-type fun in the evening. It sounded fantastic and I told her I was looking forward to it. Later on that day I got a call from another friend who told me that they had a cancellation for a volunteer duty that evening and would I like to cover it? I was just about to explain that I had plans when she explained that she’d called the first friend – also a volunteer medic – and that she was okay with it. Game on!

My friend came over and we got ready for our medic duty together, then went down to Hawrelak Park where the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra was hosting their annual Symphony Under the Sky event. We got there and had a fun handover with the previous crew, finding out that it was an evening of John Williams’ Greatest Hits.

The gates opened, people started settling down. Many were on the grass, most dressed for the cold but others dressed for the symphony. Some cold looking people about. Of course there were also some costumed people out – members of the 501st Legion, known as Vader’s Fist, were wandering around. Including Darth Vader.

He would stalk the grounds, cloak billowing behind him. Children of varying ages would walk up to him and point to their throat and he would nod imperiously (is there any other way for him to nod?). The kid would then gasp and grab their neck and he would make the Force Choke gesture. Cue gasping and writhing from the kid, parent snaps a happy picture, on they go. Our other medic bounced up out of her seat and said “We should go get pictures with them!”. I was all, “Ahh maybe” but inside my geeky heart was all “SQUEEEE!”.

She and I went into the crowd and found them. I got a shot of her with Darth Vader and the stormtroopers, and then I handed her my iPhone so she could snap a picture of me. Next to Darth Vader. Right next to Darth Vader. Me. Ahhhhhh!

I nodded to him and he nodded back, then I stood by his side. As she fiddled with the phone (“Ohh it’s really sensitive, you just have to touch that button!” “Someone just walked infront of you!”) I had time to reflect on the situation. Some 33 years ago I saw Star Wars and it pretty much changed my life. If I wasn’t into sci-fi before, I was after that. Then I realised I could hear him breathing. Not the guy in the suit, but the respirator. You know the sound.

It is an interesting thing to come face to face with your heroes. It’s an even more interesting thing to meet your villain. We went back to our first aid tent where I talked about the effect Star Wars had on my life until both girls were edging away from me and looking at each other with worried eyes. Imagine how they felt when I was bouncing up and down during the concert when they played the Imperial March…

Took A While

2010-02-09T23:28:00.001-07:00

I've been having all sorts of problems getting my new phone from Fido but finally it got here. I wonder if you can tell which type I got...

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Dammit, Microsoft

2010-01-22T14:05:00.001-07:00

It’s always a case of so near yet so far.

I love the Zune software – it is possible the best Windows application for managing and playing your media collection. No, I’m not kidding – download the software and install it, it’s free. It blows iTunes out of the water in terms of clean interface and usability. I love my Zune – a great little media player, very nice to use.

But there’s no Zune HD available in Canada. What’s up with that? Your localisation team got tired after creating an English and Spanish version, and couldn’t be bothered to do a French version?

I’m a big fan of Sony Ericsson phones, because I’ve always loved their clean interface and responsive operating system. But it’s 2010, and I want a phone that has built in “things”, like a touch screen, GPS and wifi. Don’t really care about much else, just those things would be modern. So where is it, Microsoft? You made the Zune HD, a snazzy little touch screen jobbie with an accelerometer – where is the phone version?

My last phone, a z750i has a firmware issue that causes it to turn itself off now and again. Very annoying. I recently upgraded to a t715a and whilst it’s a very sexy small device, that’s the problem. Every time I try to send a text message, I mash about four extra keys with my fat thumbs.

I’m actually considering getting an iPhone, just because I have the FidoDollars to get one. Gah.

Quick test post

2009-11-12T00:41:00.001-07:00

This is a quick test of my new laptop. I am writing this post using the pen based interface that is part of the tablet. So far, so good!

Internal Rumblings

2009-11-05T22:51:00.001-07:00

I sit and think about my insides. Today, they are well behaved but six days ago they rebelled.

Friday was the last Eskimos game of the season at their home in the Commonwealth Stadium, and to celebrate, I took my team of awesome volunteer medics out for a drink and snack at a local eatery. We told stories, shared experiences, and generally cleared the surrounding tables of patrons – as we often do. I had some potato skins with barbeque chicken. They were yummy.

The next morning I woke feeling funny. I couldn’t settle back to sleep, and I couldn’t work out why. I played some WoW and tried to work out what was going on. Then it hit me – toads upset tummage, dude. I remember laying in bed, feeling so weak I could not move. No, really. I was laying there, dehydrated, wiling my body to get up so I could have some water – but I couldn’t. I simply was too weak. Such an odd sensation.

I had protested to a friend that I didn’t need anything, but they came by later in the day to drop off some supplies and check up on me, and I was mighty glad they did. The sheer mental boost I received really helped turn this around. Work was informed, and told that this probably wasn’t H1N1. Sunday and Monday was still the same situation, but by Tuesday everything had stopped. Literally everything, as my body appeared to have gone into shock. No appetite, nothing.

Of course, that’s when my phone beeped at 8am to remind me that I was supposed to be at Canada Place to sign documents in front of witnesses that prescribed me as a fresh-faced Permanent Resident of this fine country, so I had to haul myself off there. I managed to sign the forms, request a new SIN (that starts with a 6 not a 9!) and then renew my Alberta Health Care details in the space of about two hours – so much faster than I would ever have been able to do the similar bureaucratic activities in the UK.

Now I am seemingly back to normal, with a still-suppressed appetite for food – but an increased appetite for blogging, it seems.

Missing

2009-01-21T16:50:00.001-07:00

I met a really good friend last year, and he went back to Vancouver once his time here was done. I miss him.

My room mate went to Ottawa to study. I really miss her.

Her boyfriend got made redundant. He’s going to Ottawa to be with her. I’m going to miss him, too. More than I think I know, now.

I found some photos of my ex-wife on the web, pictures of her and her new husband and their new baby. Funnily enough, the thing I focused on was how my ex-mother-in-law just looks disapproving in all the shots.

All of these things might make me sad, but they just made me reflective. I need to hold on to the experiences I have, and make sure I stay close to my friends, near and far.

Jazz Hands

2009-01-14T18:39:00.001-07:00

Last night at my St. John Ambulance Volunteer First Aid Response Services meeting we had some good training on Scene Survey and Primary Survey protocols.

One of the general questions was “What are the names given to certain types of abnormal posturing you may see as a result of a serious head injury?”. I replied “Decorticate and decerebrate!”.

“Good!” said our instructor, “But which is which?”. “Decorticate is flexing inwards, decerebrate is extending outwards!” I said.

“Wow”, asked another member, “How do you you remember all of these things?”. “Oh, he’s a medical geek for that kind of stuff” said another.

“No no, that’s not it at all! It took me a long time to get a mnemonic for this! Decorticate is inwards to the core, decerebrate is outwards in celebration!” I explained.

Our instructor continued, “You will rarely see these types of posturing, and usually because of a really bad head injury”.

I chimed in, “Of course, the way you can tell if it’s a serious neurological insult is if they’re doing jazz hands. Anyone who does that has a definite brain injury”.

I swear if they had bread rolls they’d have pelted me with them.

The Difference

2008-08-26T15:27:00.001-06:00

Working downtown you get used to seeing two main types of people - the homeless, and office workers. So far the office workers outnumber the other kind, but it seems to be shifting as time goes on... Generally you can tell which type someone is by the building pass they had strapped to their waist or worn around their neck.

Recently though a few post-secondary institutions, such as the University of Alberta, have opened locations downtown. Now we've got a load of younger scruffy types with no building passes. However are we going to tell them apart from the homeless?

I noticed something else - you can subtly tell the difference between types of people by what they have on themselves. If they are using or carrying a mobile phone they are probably not homeless. If they have headphones on, they are probably not homeless. A lot of student-types have mp3 players! Not many homeless people have them!

Finally, a way to tell the great unwashed apart from the homeless. Welcome back to school. :)

How Ducks Must Feel

2008-07-09T10:29:00.002-06:00

I got soaked last night.

We were watching Richard III at Shakespeare In The Park, sitting on a park bench at the back with all our gear in front of us. Radios, Oxygen Bag, Trauma Bag, Defibrillator, our bags, the usual gear. I didn't bring an ambulance this time to save on all the hassle of picking one up.

Then the thunder and lightning started. No rain. Each flash was bright, each crack was loud. We eventually turned around and watched it rather than the play.

Next we saw two freaky cloud formations swirl towards us, from the South and South West. They seemed to be UNDER the thunderheads. Then the wind picked up. Then the wind REALLY picked up. It was blowing the mesh curtains at the back of the stage around. Finally it knocked an actors hat off. They announced a break and told all the actors to head under the stage.

Then the rain started. Wow. So much rain. We ran to cover, grabbing as much of our stuff as we could. We threw the gear under an overhang but the wind was blowing the rain into the amphitheater so we moved deeper in. The rain then turned to hail. I put my partner into my car and turned back to deal with the situation. This way, at least only one of us would be wet.

Everyone was fully under the huge amphitheater awning now. Many were standing on the stage. The staff had pulled open all the drains and were sweeping as much of the torrents of water into them as possible. The noise was insane, and the hail was falling directly on all of our stuff. As I looked up I also realised the downpour was hitting the roof and sliding to the edge until it built up critical mass, then it would fall down in sheets. I had to go under this to get the gear, and each time I did it was like stepping into a shower of ice pellets. Mainly because it was a shower of ice pellets.

I managed to grab everything, including our hi-vis vests. It took about five trips, the last one to grab my partners cell phone which was covered with hail and rain - and still works! After that, I shook myself off and made sure everyone was okay by patrolling around the edges of the auditorium.

A little while later it stopped and the skies were blue. Everything started steaming slightly, including me. The staff swished out the last of the hail and water, and started wiping down the stage. Everyone moved back to their seats - but some went home as they were so wet.

I made sure my partner was okay and sat in the car to warm up for a bit. Soon the windows were steamed up. When I got out to look around, there was steam everywhere - a fog had risen from the ground across the lake, and all the open grass areas. The twilight was shrouded in mist, but the sky was as clear as can be.

We eventually left at around 11. I had started to shiver by then and needed a warm shower. Every part of me was soaked. We drove once around the park to look at the mist swirling around then drove up out of the river valley and into clear night-scented air.

This morning I checked my wallet and all my cash is soggy. What an awesome night!

Poking Sticks

2008-03-06T12:35:00.004-07:00

I was at an Oilers game the other day and we were talking about how many ambulance calls are for people in the street, not moving, possibly dead. No one ever tries to wake them up, and they generally end up as intoxicated itinerant individuals who are asked to move on by the crew. This seems to happen a lot in big cities, less so in smaller towns - but it still happens. Even in Canada, in winter.

What I suggested was a special Poking Stick. Much like the concept of 'Heart Safe', where AEDs are available to members of the public in case someone collapses, these special "Poke Safe" sticks would be available behind plastic fronted cabinets in high occurrence areas. That way, members of the public could safely poke collapsed drunks without fear of being attacked, or more importantly, of getting ickiness on them. Eww.

I'm sure it'll catch on. I'll write to the regional director of health services. The budget should be a lot cheaper than those $5,000 AED units!

Jonathan Coulton performing Still Alive in RockBand!

2008-02-26T10:50:00.001-07:00

I so can't wait for this to be released! It's going to be awesome!

Filler Bunny

2008-02-13T16:00:00.002-07:00

Work

I am dealing with two, maybe three projects at work. My main one is a spin off from one of the others, and involved me creating a high level architecture for a near-shore development team based in Ottawa. I am providing ongoing architectural support for them, and resolving some of the issues because of my ties with the existing project.

I recently completed my third demonstration of the original project to a large number of stakeholders via a 'webinar' - a web broadcast - which went well. As with the previous two, the experience was rather last minute but it ended well. We had to split the demo into two parts because portions of the system were not quite ready.

I am also working on the integration of these new projects at the client sites, providing support for XSLT development and implementation along with a delivery manager. I think that will kick into high gear when these other two things are done.

As well as all of that good stuff, I'm involved with a few other clients, and promoting the Microsoft Users Group at work. It's enough to keep me out of trouble.

WoW

I've rediscovered WoW recently.

After the guild I was with on Boulderfist decided, once again, that progress wasn't being made, a previous guild member turned up after some considerable months off and started a guild of their own. Many people bleed off into this guild and eventually we all joined it. Then said charismatic leader disappeared into the night once again, and things just collapsed like a flan in a cupboard.

When I got the Burning Crusade, I met an RL friend of mine and her husband in the queue. She suggested I join them on their server, Sentinels, and play with them. I've been leveling a Tauren Druid and having fun with their RP guild. Lots of interesting drama, but totally different from the hardcore raiding guild stuff.

TV Shows

Because of my extended break from volunteering, I've also been taking advantage of my new free time to watch a variety of TV shows that were lent to me by a friend of mine. I've just finished the first and second seasons of Battlestar Galactica, and wow. It's totally amazing, really good SF and great characterisation.

The writers strike - which I think was just resolved - was a great time to catch up with all the TV shows I missed whilst I didn't have a TV for ages. I'm also using my Windows Media Center to record all the shows, and I'm enjoying the run of Scrubs and South Park to get me up to speed on what I missed for the past few years. Technology. So wonderful.

XBOX

Speaking of wonderful technology, I finished Portal and am tracking through HL2:Episode One on my XBOX at the moment. I also participated in a purchase plan to get Rock Band, and I've been thundering on the skins, jagging with my axe, and yelling up a storm to the various songs available. On Easy mode. Of course.

It's a fantastic game, and I can't wait to play with others on it (this weekend is when we'll test it, and then in a few weekends time I take it to my friends house for a Rock Star party!). I even added some "Microsoft Points" so I could download the Police, David Bowie, and Oasis song packs. Hehe.

Here Comes Another Bubble

2008-01-28T13:18:00.001-07:00

This is such a cool song. I was there for the housing market bubble in the early 1990s and the dot com bubble in the early 2000s, and this totally nailed the whole concept.

"Now that ain't workin' that's the way you do it
You play the guitar on the MTV
That ain't workin' that's the way you do it
Money for nothin' and your chicks for free"

New Year, New Start?

2008-01-15T11:15:00.000-07:00

It's a new year. Hope you are having a happy one so far.

I'm unsettled, because my work permit runs out on the 28th of January and if it expires I must return to the United Kingdom. This isn't a particular issue, as I have managed to get a set of immigration lawyers on the case - I didn't even know my company had immigration lawyers, very nifty. Still doesn't change the fact that every day when I get home from work I check my mailbox to see if there is a letter from Immigrations Canada, and get just a little more tweaked every time it's not there...

Makes me want to curl up in a cave somewhere and hibernate.

Apart from that, I've taken a slight break from volunteering. I think I will start again, and I've requested to attend a concert that is coming up in a few days. My focus is going to be on the first aid, rather than the supervising. I hope it goes well. During December, I missed attending duties, especially the people and the treatment. I did get way more XBOX action though, finished Gears of War. Got The Orange Box for Christmas, which is totally awesome even though I played Half-Life 2 on the PC a few years ago.

I visited the Muttart Conservatory over the weekend, as it keeps me sane in winter when I'm here. My favorite oak tree had gone! I tried to find out why but the front desk girl had only been working there since September, and had no idea there was even an oak tree in the temperate pavilion. Serves me right for not going more often...

Ride 'Em, Cowboy

2007-11-10T00:13:00.000-07:00

Rodeo stories are usually the same each year. Someone looking rather red faced and/or wheezy appears at the first aid post, "I forgot I was allergic to [horses|dust|hay|air|people]! I didn't bring my puffer!" We give out so much benadryl and ventolin it's unreal. Silly people.

Thursday night was the "Tough Enough To Wear Pink" night. All the cowboys had pink shirts on, to raise awareness for breast cancer. They all looked really good. I noted once again, though, that some cowboys just look better with their hats on. It's not that they are hiding a bald spot or something, they just look better with the hat on. Female friends of mine have confirmed this to be true.

The start up of the evening was really impressive. The house lights go down, and a little girl comes into the arena leading a horse by its bridle. No saddle, no harness. She leads it into the centre of the arena and tries to get on, but can't. She's much too small.

She sits down cross legged in the dirt and looks forlorn.

The other side gates open and ten women walk out and fan out around the girl and her horse. As they do so, fifty cowboys walk out and fan out around the edge of the arena. They are all carrying flaming torches. The flickering of the fire lights up the area.

The women are carrying blankets, saddles, tack and harness. Some lead the girl to one side and speak to her. The others prepare the horse. The blankets go on, the saddle, the tack and harness. The horse is calmed and the girl is helped into the saddle. She rides around the arena, a huge smile on her face.

The announcer states that the five year old girl couldn't have done any of this on her own, and neither could her grandmother, who is a breast cancer survivor. The little girl was able to ride the horse thanks to the help of her sisters who came and supported her.

The women were the barrel racing contestants. The men were all the male contestants.

I've never seen so many cowboys cry.

A Wild Ride

2007-10-30T12:49:00.001-06:00

20071026_Eskimos_0007
Originally uploaded by Morpheus_uk.

When I supervise a duty, everyone is comfortable, safe, and in a learning environment. When we have down time, we go over scenarios. We practice vitals. We try doing speed blood pressures. When a patients comes to us, people quickly either assign themselves to assist or leave the post. it is clear who is dealing with the patient, and it runs like a well oiled machine.

But we also have fun.

Friday was the last Eskimos home game for the season, and I was with a stalwart set of volunteers who have been there for just about every game. I honestly feel they made it more easy and fun for me that I ever could for them.

Thank you all. I laughed so hard on Friday night that my sides hurt when I woke up on Saturday morning.

Home Network Configuration

2007-10-16T15:46:00.001-06:00

Home Network Configuration
Originally uploaded by Morpheus_uk.

I love my new home set up now.

I recently got a new PC. It has a small form factor and is about the same size as the sub woofer in my sound system.

Before I got the new PC, I also got a sweet 32" Samsung HDTV. For a while I had my laptop connected, running it as the biggest monitor I ever had and playing DVDs on it. A little later the XBOX 360 Elite came out, so I got one and took advantage of the HDMI connection. Now I play DVDs using that.

I had a nice PC that I could play WoW on, browse the net, play music, watch movies and downloaded TV. I had an XBOX that I could play games on. I had a nice TV that I could watch basic cable on. Everything seemed pretty sweet. The only downside was that if I wasn't actually home, I couldn't watch shows.

I realised something. I wanted to share files from the PC to the XBOX. I found TVersity which streams any content to any device capable of viewing it.

Then I realised something else. The new PC, with Vista Home Premium, has a Media Center. I did some research into things like personal video recorders and Windows Media Center and wondered what I could do to get all this to work. I realised I needed a TV Tuner.

After opening up my PC, I found that my super stonky graphics card took up both PCI slots available. Whoops. No big deal.

I went out and got a new monitor (just... because!), and a WinTV-PVR-USB2 thingy. I plugged them all in and installed the drivers and software.

I fired up Media Center. It told me it found a new TV Tuner. It asked for my postcode. It downloaded a 14 day TV Program Guide. It let me schedule things to be recorded. It was, frankly, utterly amazing.

Then I connected the XBOX to the PC as a Media Center Extender. I can watch live TV from my front room. I can schedule recordings from the front room. I can even, using the "MSN Remote Record Service", schedule recordings from work.

This is the first time in the years I've been using PCs that everything has just come together smoothly in one seamless package. The on screen interface is awesome. I didn't have a video recorded, or any other gadgets. I believe I can even set my laptop up as a Media Center Extender and watch TV from anywhere in the apartment.

Extremes

2007-10-05T00:04:00.000-06:00

Tonight was the season opener for the Oilers. We only had three volunteers there, which made it a little hard to provide coverage, but the two extra I had are stalwarts who try to make it for every single Oilers game.

The game was going well, we were 2-1 up. I went over to the Game Day office and managed to get some Oilers bandannas for the other volunteers and we got a call on the radio for someone collapsed. I sent one member over, got the other to watch for pucks in the crowd on both sides, and... kinda sorta ran to the other side of the arena.

When I found my first responder, they were dealing with someone who had actually fallen down some stairs. They were over 90 and had a bump on the knee and a slight bump on the head. I tell yah, they don't make 'em like they used to.

I went to the post to get some ice for the bumps and met them on the other side, as they were heading out to go home. I popped into the Game Day office and thanked them for the bandannas - in all the rush I took them and just ran off.

The game went into overtime, just when we thought we'd have an early night. Power Plays, shots on goal, it all looked so close. Then BOOM, Shoot Outs! Rolly saved the right ones! Stolly scored the rights ones! A season opener win for the Oilers!

Then the phone went, and a medic we work with called in from the City EMS to give us the heads up that someone with an internal defibrillator had called in because it had fired twice. We hadn't been contacted about this, so we notified security and then searched around the area.

An EMS crew turned up and joined the search. We eventually found our patient, who was the shy side of 50. After requesting a specific hospital and being told he couldn't be guaranteed to be taken there, he wanted to go with his friends. We explained to him that if he died on the way there with his friends, he'd stay dead, but if he went with the EMS crew, they'd get him back no problem. He was convinced. Hehe.

So we had someone over 90 who was doing stunt tumbles down stairs, and another who was under 50 with a cardiac history and a fitted defibrillator. Just goes to show that you never know.

Dirty

2007-09-19T16:42:00.000-06:00

Last night, Oilers pre-season game. Chatting to a fellow St John Ambulance person in the corridor outside the first aid post. I hear a noise, sounds like water running. "Oh no, not again!" I say, as I stand up and turn around and slam open the doors as fast as I can.

I hit someone, the door bounces back, I step over the fresh puddle of pee on the ground and look around the corner. I see a girl standing, talking to someone.

"There's no way she could have got her knickers and pants up that fast", I think. I look further around the corner and see a guy there, animatedly talking with his hands in that fake, 'of-course-I've-been-talking-for-ages' way. I stare at him for a while, and go back inside.

Next time I'll remember to take a photo with my phone camera. Dirty dirty people. Make the corridor smell of pee.

Memories: The Human Beatbox and Entertainer

2007-09-05T18:00:00.000-06:00

Picture the scene with me.

It is 1986. In Harlow, Essex, England there is an unusual culture mix at secondary school. Predominant among most kids is 'Casual' rather than 'New Romantic'. There were also a lot of Heavy Metal fans, some Rockers, and a few Mods. Largely, though, people didn't strive to stand out, it was more important to fit in. I was sort of a Casual.

An outsider would have defined Casuals as 'white kids and hip hop'. We were big into hip hop. Music, fashion, culture. The lot. We were also a relatively multi-cultural school, being just outside London. But we were still white kids, which made it all so much funnier looking back on it. We were into Miami Vice mixed with Duran Duran. We would take train trips into London looking for West End Girls.

At my school we had a school uniform. I think this is generally a good thing. You don't have to try to fit in, or impress anyone, because your outfit is already determined for you. Girls would push the envelope and wear makeup. Actually, some boys did as well - the whole 'New Romantic' thing. Boys would untuck their shirts or make their ties huge or tiny. The thing that really stood out in terms of individuality was the footwear. Trainers. The cooler the better. Either Nike or Reebok, sometimes Puma or Adidas. Some of the styles were amazing, and could be upwards of 60 pounds a pair - which by todays money would be 2 gagillion pounds. Rocking out with a new pair of trainers would cause everyone in the playground to come over and check you out. If you were cool, there would be oohs and aaahs. If you weren't cool enough, everyone would try to stomp the fuck out of your new shoes, dirtying them up. Fun times.

Anyway, that's not what this was about. Just setting the scene.

I grew up with music on the radio, but also my parents records. That meant I listened to such things as Elvis and the Beatles (Mum) and Otis Redding and James Brown (Dad). My favourite group at the time was The Police, three white English guys who played reggae punk. This may explain my eclectic music taste now.

My best friend introduced me to Hip Hop music. I can recall hanging out with him and his monster of a ghetto blaster listening to Herbie Hancock, Run DMC, LL Cool J, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel, Eric B. & Rakim, and all sorts of other great stuff. Damn, that was a cool boombox.

One of the most popular songs was called "The Show" by Doug E Fresh. As well as being a rapper, he was one of the first beatboxers. His partner was Slick Rick, and together with the Get Fresh Crew they rapped over riffs taken from the theme to Inspector Gadget - which just made it even more awesome. On the b-side was another song called "La Di Da Di" which was a rapped story about the day in the life of Slick Rick, with beatbox accompaniment by Doug E Fresh.

I have many fond memories of being on Prefect duty with my best friend and performing this song. He would rap, I would beatbox. We were good. We weren't great, but we gave the performance our all. It was a bonding moment, a shared experience based on a love of hip hop music. We didn't have an audience (apart from his girlfriend, sometimes, and my girlfriend, sometimes, but they didn't complain). We didn't need an audience. It was for us.

Let's jump forward roughly 10 years.

It is July 1997. I am at a joint stag weekend - my friend Chris is getting married in September, I am getting married in August. We are walking towards Fistral Beach in Newquay. It is the weekend of the Surfing Championships. My best friend is there - which makes me very happy, because for the past two years I haven't seen him due to my failure to resolve a conflict between my fiancee and him. Everything is fixed, but I feel there is still a lingering sense of unease, which is hopefully just residue guilt on my part. All the cider and dancing probably didn't help either.

We stagger along a busy high street, a crowd of around 12 guys spread out depending on how fast we're able to shuffle along. My best friend walks with me, and without prompting starts rapping the opening to "La Di Da Di". I start beatboxing along, sinking into the groove that we have shared for over 10 years, everything rushing back to how it was. Only, 10 years have passed. In those 10 years, music had evolved in the UK. So I beatboxed in the style of Drum and Bass. We really got into it, too. Walking, rapping, beatboxing. Several people commented how cool it sounded as we went past. What they didn't know at the time was that, as we were heading towards the beach, every problem I imagined in my relationship with my best friend was healing.

Now, 10 years later, he is still my best friend. There is a resurgence of things from the 80s - The Police have toured, Miami Vice was rebooted as a movie, styles tend to eat themselves. But it's good to know that the rappers are still keeping it real:
The Show live
Ladi Dadi live

BarStucks

2007-08-24T12:00:00.000-06:00

I'm writing this on some poached WiFi at a Starbucks on the corner of Richmond Street and Central Avenue in London, Ontario.

On a crazy whim (or because of a crazy room mate) I decided to fly to Chicago, and then from there drive east to various places, meeting various people. I'm waiting here to meet Kim, who used to be related to me.

She's my ex-cousin-in-law, and is the partner of Sinclair. They have two kids who I am dying to meet. I'll get to hang with them today and then on Sunday - so I have Saturday night to cruise around southern Ontario and surrounding parts. I'm looking forward to it - might have to see Niagara again.

I'm also hoping to see a few friends I know from World of Warcraft, and perhaps another friend who moved to Lafayette in Indiana.

During all of this, the room mate is part of a pit crew for a drag racing team. This is just typical of the kind of thing we get up to.

Busier than a one winged bee in a field of sunflowers

2007-07-17T15:54:00.000-06:00

It's been crazy busy for me these past few weeks. Work has been interesting and fun, lots of client presentations and analysis work and architecting. There have been a lot of first aid events to volunteer at, too - summer is definately here in E-town. Plus I've been trying to socialise a little bit more, which has been working well.

From the 19th I am going to be at Capital Ex. I've taken time off work and I will be doing double shifts at Northlands, being placed wherever they need me. I did the same last year and gained so much experience. It was great fun.

This year I hope to keep a written diary and I'll post up what I've written afterwards!

Lucky

2007-06-15T15:38:00.000-06:00

Apparently it was just chance that you were there that morning. The family had tickets, and you decided to go along with them.

That was lucky.

You were seated very close to a first aid post, where a paramedic and a number of medical volunteers were stationed.

That was lucky.

During the event, your family saw you have difficulty, and quickly called for help.

That was lucky.

The event staff went to the first aid room. One of the medical volunteers quickly went to check, meeting a member of the family on the way, and was swiftly directed to where you lay.

That was lucky.

The medical volunteer found you laying on the concrete floor between the seats and noted your agonal breathing, cyanotic lips, pale and diaphoretic complexion. Your carotid pulse was checked, and found to be absent. The volunteer used their radio to call for the paramedic on duty, who confirmed that they were already on their way with their equipment.

That was lucky.

At the same time, a bystander identified themselves as a nurse and asked if they should start chest compressions. The medical volunteer checked for a pulse one more time and told the nurse to start. Almost straight away, the paramedic arrived and started setting up a defibrillator. The medical volunteer made sure an ambulance had been called.

That was lucky.

You had defibrillator pads stuck to your chest. The nurse was beating your heart for you by compressing your chest. The medical volunteer was breathing for you by 'bagging' you between compressions, delivering oxygen into your lungs. The paramedic periodically called for a pause in CPR to analyse your heart rhythm. You were shocked a number of times. During all of this, the medical volunteer removed your glasses and placed them into the top pocket of their shirt, in order to get a better seal on your mouth and nose with the mask. After a short while, the nurse stated that she was tired and needed someone to take over. A member of staff who had previous experience with CPR took over seamlessly.

That was lucky.

An EMS team arrived, along with a Fire Crew. The on duty paramedic shocked you once more, then arranged for you to be carried up out of the stairs to the waiting stretcher. More CPR was done on you as you lay there, then you were transported to the waiting ambulance. Just before you left the venue, the paramedic called for everyone to stop. The defibrillator showed that you had a heart beat, and you were breathing on your own. Before you left the venue, you were back.

That was lucky.

The stretcher was loaded into the ambulance, and the EMS crew and the paramedic went into the back and got to work. Your son was placed into the passenger seat whilst in the back, people worked to stabilise you. Soon after, the ambulance left to take you to a nearby hospital.

That was lucky.

Later on, the hospital called the first aid post and told everyone that you were sitting up in the intensive care unit, talking. Everyone who was involved was thanked for working together as a team. The ultimate reward was knowing you were okay.

All of this was because you happened to fall ill whilst being close to good cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, good defibrillation, and good access to advanced care. Perhaps luck had some part in this, but ultimately you were in the right place at the right time.

I still remember the look on your sons face and I handed your glasses to him whilst he sat in the ambulance, a tear running down his cheek as the full weight of what happened hit him.

Woo Yay Hoopla!

2007-06-08T23:53:00.000-06:00

I heard from my lawyer today. She heard from the other lawyers this week. It seems a judge saw the Minutes of Settlement and Statement of Divorce and all the other bits and pieces, and signed it at the end of May, so at the end of June I will be officially divorced.

One month shy of my 10th wedding anniversary. Damn. I think the reward for 10 years is a coffee maker and an executive pen. Should have hung on in there for that last month.

Anyway, mixed feelings yes, but also a huge sense of relief. As a friend pointed out, it's just one more tie to my old life. My new life grows each day.

I don't often talk about me, just what I do. This weekend is no exception - after a long week of working, tomorrow I get up early to go to a local airport to cover that, then Sunday it's a Kids with Cancer walk. Spare time will be taken up with work. Keeps me busy.

Tired

2007-05-28T12:00:00.000-06:00

I was able to back the big ambulance out of the garage, drive it around over several days, and nose it back into the garage without bumping into any walls or people. A success!

Even with a spotter, I was clenching as I took it out the first time. It's so much bigger and taller than I'm used to. Still, I think I have the hang of it now. We'll see - I think I'll be driving it around for various upcoming football games.

The Cancer Society 'Relay for Life' was interesting. I got to Foote Field on Friday after taking the big ambulance through Rush Hour traffic. I parked it up and wandered around, taking in all the sights. Many of the crew had been there before, so they filled me in on what happens and how it all runs. We wandered around, drinking chocolate milk from the milk stall, watching Venus rise at the astronomical society stall, and being envious of the kids on the bouncy castle.

It was a quiet night, with just one blister to deal with. As it got darker it got a lot cooler, and the layers went on. I was taking some arty photos when I bumped into a friend who I know through someone at work. She is a Toastmaster, and was there with her company. Edmonton is such a small town sometimes.

The Relay was very moving. People just kept walking through the night. The moon rose and moved across the sky. The horizon darkened and the stars came out. The sound system went quiet, and still people just kept walking around the track.

I got a few hours sleep between 4 and 6, waking up for breakfast, and to watch the end of the event. Once we were done, I took the ambulance over to my building downtown and parked it outside, on Bellamy Hill. I went in and had a bath and a shower and a shower and a Red Bull, then waiting for a few others to come to my appartment so we could drive together to Churchill Square.

Once we were all together, we drove to City Hall for The City Chase. Found out where to park the ambulance, found out what the crew needed, made sure everyone was ready to go, and then sat back quietly sipping tea and reading Stardust by Neil Gaiman. Awesome book. Later on, I chatted to someone from 91.7 The Bounce about the event, and pointed her towards the actual event organisers. Then I helped out with their sound system - had a bit of a problem with the amplifiers, but we got it fixed.

The Red Bull girls turned up. Last year they'd appear at most duties I was at, and I'd get all friendly with them. They knew I was only after their sweet, sweet nectar - forget the short skirts and tight tops, I need taurine! I ended up with more cans of the stuff at the end of the duty than I started with, always a bonus.

I left that duty early, returning the ambulance and getting ready. I then zoomed down to Millett for a BBQ at a friends house. We celebrated some good news with their family and friends, and had lots of yummy food and chats. The previous two days caught up with me, and I stopped off in Leduc and stayed in a hotel - couldn't face driving all the way home.

The next morning I got up early and went to the Coronation Pool in Edmonton, where I watched my good friend Janet do the Coronation Triathalon. It was very impressive, and she did really well. After that, back home, got ready, grabbed an ambulance, and off to Hawrelak Park to cover an event there. I met two people from work there, too - again with the small town thing. The event was an inter-denominational prayer festival at the ampitheatre in the park. It was a lovely day, and a very nice event.

That evening I stayed in and recovered. I was so tired at the end, I passed out whilst reading a book. It was a really fun weekend!

Whoops

2007-05-25T12:01:00.000-06:00

I neglected the blog. Silly me.

I have this as a feed into Facebook now, too. I like how they do that. I'd love it if they did a Flickr feed too, so I didn't have to upload my photos in two different places.

I was in England at the start of May. I had to go back to clear out a whole load of stuff in the loft of my house over there. A week was just enough, and I only had one day of 'rest'. I spent the time on my parents boat on the River Stort, and it was awesome. I could easily boat about England for the rest of my days.

I came back and got right into the thick of things again. There was the My Chemical Romance gig last week, where we had many spinal injuries and a fair few ambulances called. There was a Pow Wow over the weekend, which was my first one and very interesting.

After a quiet bank holiday Monday, I had a divisional meeting on Tuesday, then The Killers on Wednesday. Last night I learnt how to drive the big ambulance (scary to back it out of the garage). I also went to a meeting at the Commonwealth Stadium where they explained the changes for the upcoming events. Everything went smoothly, and I got some good news from our CSC - she's staying on! Woo hoo!

Tonight I pick up the big ambulance and take it to Foote Field, where the Cancer Society Relay for Life is running. It'll continue overnight until Saturday morning, and I'll be covering another event straight after.

I love Red Bull. :D

A Good Job

2007-04-02T18:12:00.000-06:00

Tom over at Random Reality posts about Another Good Job. The interesting thing is, I know what he means. More in the future...

Bleurgh

2007-03-28T11:10:00.000-06:00

Saturday I wasn't feeling so good. Sunday I felt so bad I missed going to an Eric Clapton concert. Monday I was off work, and my head felt like it had been encased in alien drool. Tuesday wasn't much better, and today I dragged my aching carcass into the office to enter my time and sort a few things out.

I think it's the 'flu. I hope it's the 'flu, and not Tiberian Galloping Lurgy, which has complications I don't even WANT to go into here.

My joints ache, my head aches, I have too much mucous, and oddly enough my left eyeball feels bigger than my right eyeball. So tired.

Free Hugs

2007-03-21T18:02:00.000-06:00

I got two free hugs today. I was heading out for lunch, walking on the north side of Jasper Avenue. I crossed from the City TV block to Commerce Place, and as I did so I saw three girls with placards that said 'FREE HUGS'. I never turn up the chance of a free hug.

I hope they were inspired by this story on YouTube that I saw last year. It really was cool.

I watched them from the window of my office. They were there most of the afternoon, and then they went. A little later, they were back - but it was a different crew! On the way home I had to get some cash from the bank, and I managed to get a second hug. Bonus!

Funny The First 100 Times

2007-03-16T09:38:00.000-06:00

When I'm pushing an empty wheelchair quickly around the concourse at the stadium, it's REALLY funny if you say one of the following:

Is that for me?!
Oh, it's for her, she needs it!
Over here!
Can I have a ride?

Bonus points if you pretend to get into it.

Wasted Time

2007-03-15T14:27:00.000-06:00

A concert. The support act finishes. I walk back to the first aid post with my team. We sit and relax. After a while people head back out to their posts. I finish talking with the paramedic.

As I start to leave security brings in a girl. I lead her into the room and attend with the paramedic. She is pale, diaphorectic, and shaking. We give her a "convenience bag" to help her deal with any "protein spills" - a puke bag. We ask her questions: when did she last eat; when did she last drink; has she had anything else; does she have any medical conditions.

As we take a set of vitals on her the story comes out. Yesterday was the last day of her 9 day drinking binge. She often does this. She has done so since she was 13. That is six years of binge drinking.

We try not to be judgemental. We try to tell her, factually, what will happen to her body. We mention what is happening to her body now. We tell her that she has the DTs. She listens. She looks at us flatly.

Security return to get her details. She is told that she is done for the night - home time. She calls her mother. After a while I take her in a wheelchair to the parking area. I hand her over to her parent. I return to the post.

I reflect on how a pretty girl in her late teens has been an alcoholic for six years.

Top Gear: Car Lightning

2007-03-12T14:56:00.001-06:00

One of THE best programs on Brit TV, with the craziest of features.

What would happen if you car actually got hit by lightning?

Important To Me: Reading

2007-03-08T16:22:00.000-07:00

Reading is important to me. I started reading early, I read a lot. I read most of the books in my primary school, including all the cool Greek Mythology stuff. I read the bible before I was 10, because of the awesome stories. I developed favourites, books that I would re-read, characters that I could return to like old friends.

I also liked to climb trees. I can remember at least two times where I combined these two passions and read up a tree.

My paternal nan got me interested in science fiction. We would go over to see her and grandad on Sundays. My brother and I would wander around near their house, then come back and help make dinner, and then watch Space 1999 and Thunderbirds and such things on TV. She let me read all their Issac Asimov and Harry Harrison books.

One of the most thoughtful and moving books I have ever read is Zen And The Art Of Motorcycle Maintenance.

My favourite set of books is the Saga of the Exiles.

I have a lot of books. I want more. I like to read. Reading is important to me.

The Right Attitude

2007-03-01T11:56:00.000-07:00

There is no way in which I compare to the author of this post apart from how I try to act whilst on duty. I aspire to behave in this manner when providing patient care. I only hope I am able to do so as well.

"Are you gonna do the accent or not?"

2007-02-28T14:06:00.003-07:00

One of the best film parodies ever!

Think that's a beach?

2007-02-25T23:03:00.001-07:00

oldphoto
Originally uploaded by rattlingdjs.

Think again!

My sister scanned in this picture, I remember when it was taken. I must have been 12 or 13 at the time, and pretty emo.

The location is here, just to one side of a ramp. The only bit of sand around was right there. We'd often walk west along the river bank to the pub at the end of Ferry Road. Lots of fun. One day, I want to go back and see how everything is.

Test Post

2007-02-25T22:11:00.001-07:00

This was a double test - of my new RAZR phone, and to see if Flickr and Blogger can talk to each other nicely.
Originally uploaded by Morpheus_uk.

Status Update

2007-02-22T16:48:00.000-07:00

Things are interesting.

Work is actually stimulating me again, for the first time in a while. I think it is a combination of being on multiple projects plus actually doing the stuff that I enjoy.

My medical volunteering with the St. John Ambulance Brigade is still as exciting as it ever was. Not only do I get to help people and attend fun events, I also get to work with a great bunch of people. Many of these people are now very dear friends.

In terms of my life, I feel more positive and upbeat than I have in a long time. I think the impending resolution of my marriage is helping towards this. I think that realising that I am loved by many, and love many in return, takes the edge off a little too. Heh.

I'm eager to see what is next.

Back

2007-01-08T15:36:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Canada now. First day back at work today. A new year. All that jazz.

I went back to England twice last year, and the first time I returned to Edmonton in June. As I was on the plane, I felt very melancholy. When I landed, I caught the bus to Edmonton. As we rolled along the highway, I thought how no one would be at the bus station to meet me, and how I would trundle my cases along to my appartment where I would unpack them alone.

When I was on the plane this time, I felt the same way. As I was on the bus to Edmonton, that feeling changed. I realised that I no one would be there to meet me at the bus station, but that was just because I didn't arrange it. My phone was buzzing with text messages from all the wonderful people who had missed me. I had already arranged to meet several of them over the next few days.

Yes, I'm still living alone, but my situation has changed so much. I've made so many new friends and rediscovered many more. I'm very happy to know all these wonderful people.

I just need to keep reminding myself of that.

These Things Seem To Find Me

2006-12-10T12:00:00.000-07:00

I was at a concert the other day, as a first aid volunteer. I was in the first aid post, with lots of incidents going on, and first aiders were in and out. A guy was brought down after being punched in the face. Security escorted him in, and I started writing up his details on our incident reports whilst two other first aiders dealt with his bloody nose.

He said he was hit because he was gay, because he was brown, because he was talking to some guys girl. I told him I didn't care, I wanted to fix him up so he could enjoy his day. This kind of thing pisses me off. I really don't like it when people use things like that as a reason. You are not just gay, you are not just brown, you are a human, and you have a right not to be punched in the face - but if you make everything into an issue, then you will get treated like an issue, and not as a person.

I was firm and direct, and got the information I needed. Everyone else got called away. The security guard closed the door to the first aid post, he was still there whilst the security teams worked out what was happening with the 'puncher' upstairs. Eventually the radio spake, and the guard said, "Other witnesses said you started it, and you are out".

I was sitting at the desk, they were by the door. After this announcement, the guy was a little upset, and got visibly agitated. The guard was all "turn around, I am going to restrain you" and the guy was all "Er, no". They got into what was pretty much a 'slap fight'. I was trying hard not to laugh.

In the scuffle the lights to the room were turned off. I rolled my eyes hugely in the pitch black darkness, got my flashlight from my belt and turned it on. I pointed it at the two of them, and the lightswitch. The guard by this point had the guy on the bed, and he looked at me with a "sorry" look on his face and turned the light back on. I was still rolling my eyes as he escorted the guy out.

I told our supervisor about the incident, and filled out an unusual incident report:
Problem: "During a scuffle, lights in the first aid room got turned off" Resolution: "Turned lights back on"

Communication

2006-11-24T14:44:00.000-07:00

I was reminded by something I read about an incident I dealt with in summer, at the Heritage Days festival here in Edmonton.

Three ladies of somewhat advanced years came over to the first aid post. One was looking a bit peaky, and she only spoke in Hebrew. The other two were from St. Albert, and all three were Jewish. Their friend was over from Israel - "The area that is currently being bombed", she said, via translation - and had left her medication at her friends house in St. Albert. She had chest pains, and it took quite a long time for the two of us to get the full story.

She ended up feeling fine, as we monitored her and gave her some oxygen. She just needed a little sit in the cool with some water - it was a very hot day. I ended up taking all three of them to the Arabic pavillion on a golf cart, so they could have a look around before they went home. They were all super friendly, and enjoyed the attention. We even had our photos taken with them, lots of fun. They were very impressed with our treatment of them, and with Edmonton in general.

But the point of this was to outline how hard it was to get history and symptoms from someone who doesn't speak your own language. I would ask the translator whilst looking at the patient, and watch as she responded, trying to get an idea of her level of discomfort based on her body language. It was quite the challenge, especially when there is a heart problem and you are trying to determine the severity of it.

It also highlights the two very different areas for us: alert people versus unconcious people. With people who can respond, you can try to find out some information, but it is often misleading, or they focus on the 'wrong' thing. With unconcious people, you treat what you find, which can often be simpler, but also way more scary and complicated.

Happy Ending

2006-11-21T16:00:00.000-07:00

Last night I was at the Three Days Grace concert. First up were Idle Sons, then Mobile, followed by Theory of a Deadman. I was stage left with two other first aiders, watching the mosh pit curl back on itself and disgorge tiny wee crowd surfers like chunks of vomit (or "protein spills" as vomit is refered to on radio channels, heh).

We had a few things to deal with - bloody noses, crushed people, hurt feet. Most people got up and walked away. Like many of the mosh pits I've been to, bloody noses and black eyes are badges of honour. A few people who got a little bit squished came and sat on our stair chair for a bit. One or two had a little "protein spill" and felt better. A normal mosh pit. Suspected spinal injuries on one, but she was fine and soon disappeared into the crowd.

Later on, Three Days Grace were playing. A young lass was pulled from the front of the mosh pit by a security guard. I saw that she was in obvious distress, so I went over to help the security guard escort her over. She had trouble breathing, and I got her into the chair and tried to find out what was wrong. The concert noise, and her gasps, made it hard to work out what was happening.

Eventually, using my notepad, I was able to find out that she had been waiting six years to meet her favourite band, and had her autographed CD snatched from her hands whilst in the crowd. She was inconsolable, crying and wailing. I tried to get her to calm down, and I was seriously considering strapping her to the chair and transporting her to the first aid room to get her away from the noise and onto some oxygen.

A guy behind the side stage area tapped me on the shoulder and asked me which band. I asked her by way of notepad, and he saw her write "Idle Sons". He told me to hang on a minute. I crouched down and reassured her some more, trying to get her to slow her breathing rate. After a short while, the guy returned and we had a little shouted conversation. He had arranged for the band to meet with her - I thought he might do something like this. He asked if she was okay to walk, and I told him I'd take her until she was steady on her feet.

I knelt before her and told her that we were going for a walk. I held her hand and lead her behind the stage and over to where some of Idle Sons were waiting. She staggered, and then went from a hunched position to standing fully upright and saying "OH MY GOD!" really loudly. Seriously, it was better than giving her oxygen. She couldn't beleive it, and hugged two of the guys straight away. We walked under the seats to where their dressing rooms were, and the rest of the band were there. Members of the other bands were coming and going, and asked if this was the girl, and if she was okay now. She was delighted - looking from face to face, unable to believe her eyes.

I told 'em to take care of her, I told her to keep breathing, and I left them to it. They were just piling in the elevator to go up to their merchandising desk on the main floor.

I went back to our area and found the concert over. We waited until it all cleared, and then went back to the first aid room. A little later, when things were clear, I wandered over to the table where the bands were. I thanked Idle Sons for taking care of her, and learnt that a lot of people on the tour are called Sean. Heh.

Water Main

2006-11-11T23:02:00.000-07:00

Yesterday afternoon there was a water main break on Jasper Avenue. This kind of thing happens when the temperature goes up and down like a yoyo. As a result of the pipe burst, an email went around to everyone in the building I work in which basically said "Don't pee!".

Everyone crossed their legs and carried on with their day.

A little while later another email arrived which basically said "OMG NO SPRINKLERS GET OUT NOW!". I can imagine the discussion downstairs:
Building Person 1: Better tell them not to pee, they can't flush
Building Person 2: Hmm that might get smelly after a while
BP1: True, maybe we should evacuate them before it gets too bad, hehehe
BP2: Hahaha, yes. Oh wait, what else uses water?
BP1: The sprinklers?
Both: ARGH! Get everyone out now before the insurance company gets us!

Of course, as we evacuated (so nice to be able to use the elevators rather than the stairs; no fire!) one wag was sure to mention how, if a fire did break out, we could probably put it out by peeing on it. A number of people with fixed grins enthusiastically agreed. It was a great relief to finally get home.

Home Town Mentioned

2006-10-31T13:58:00.000-07:00

My hometown gets a mention on one of the blogs I read regularly, Diagnosis? N.F.I.

I also read Random Acts of Reality - that was the first UK medical blog I started reading. I'm also partial to Nee Naw, NHS Blog Doctor, and The Policeman's Blog.

The Littlest Mermaid

2006-10-31T11:05:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I was at the Halloween-O-Rama, which is held in the Legislature Grounds. Two of us were providing first aid services for everyone there, and we wandered around inside the Interpretive Centre because the snows had come and it was cold outside. We had an ambulance parked outside, free hot chocolate, and lots to see.

Whilst we were wandering around, we saw a lovely girl of about 4, dressed as a mermaid and using a walker to help her get about. She was with her family, they were all having fun, and she was smiling as she moved along with them. Something about her really touched my heart as I watched her enjoy the event.

My partner turned to me and said that she was impressed by the little girl, and thought she was strong for using her walker so well, so young. I said that of course she needed a walker, because mermaids feet hurt when they walk on land.

It was at that point I had to move on and do something else, because some dust had got into my eyes or something.

Photos

2006-10-23T10:25:00.000-06:00

I don't have a camera at the moment. I have a camera phone, which I use now and again. I publish pictures I take on my Moblog. I also have a Flickr account. There aren't many pictures there, though.

I used to take loads of pictures. Then something happened. I stopped. I think it is related to various things that happened fairly recently in my life. I stopped caring. I stopped feeling. Nowadays, I don't take many pictures. I never really take pictures of me. I don't like the way I look on camera, or sound when recorded. I think this is true of most people, though.

There was a creepy-good movie a while ago. It was called One Hour Photo. There were a number of interesting quotes in it.

"And if these pictures have anything important to say to future generations, it's this: I was here. I existed. I was young, I was happy, and someone cared enough about me in this world to take my picture."

It's the last bit that resonantes most deeply. It was pointed out to me one time by someone that not taking pictures of them meant I didn't care about them. Looking back, I think that my subconcious had finally acknowledged the fact that they never really cared about me as deeply as I did about them, and my subconcious just gave up. Plus, the statement was made during a very traumatic time. So I don't know - I'm still thinking about this.

"Nobody takes a picture of something they want to forget. "

This is thought provoking too. Within the framework of 'family pictures', it's true - just happy memories. But we record moments as they happen, especially these days with the proliferation of digital media. We take pictures of anything and everything. There are still moments in time that we want to freeze forever though.

Questions

2006-10-17T12:32:00.000-06:00

One time I was at a 'meet the author' session arranged by Greenwoods, the book shop, to see Terry Pratchett. He opened the floor for questions and I managed to ask him one:

"Do you find that any of your characters take on a life of their own, and become more than what you had planned for them?"

He thought that was a really good question. Just wanted to share that with you.

A to Z

2006-08-23T15:00:00.000-06:00

A - Available: Yes
A - Age: 36
A - Annoyance: Complications

B - Best feature: Eyes
B - Beer: Guinness
B - Birthday: September 6

C - Crush: Not thought about it
C - Car: Norco Pinnacle (mountain bike)
C - Candy: Cadbury's Dairy Milk

D - Day or night: Night
D - Dream Car: Gary Fisher Big Sur (mountain bike)
D- Dogs or Cats: Dogs

E - Egg nog: Ewww
E - E-mail: Lots

F - Favorite color(s): Green
F - Favorite Band: Bjork

G - Gummy Bears or Worms: Bears
G - Giver or taker: Giver

H - Hair Color: Grey
H - Height: 6'
H - Happy: When I least expect it

I - Ice Cream: Cookie Dough
I - Instrument: Keyboard (heh)
I - Idol: Richard Branson
J - Jewelry: Silver ring, silver bracelet, silver necklace
J - Job: Computer Stuff
J - Jail: Not yet

K - Kids: None
K - Kickboxing or karate: Kung fu
K - Kindergarten: Nope, straight to school

L - Longest Car Ride: Edmonton, AB to Richmond, BC
L - Lamest Inside Joke: "You put WHAT in your coffee?"

M - Meat?: Beef
M - Most missed person: Susan
M - Movie Last Watched: The Family stone

N - Number of Siblings: 3
N - Number of Tattoos: 0
N - Name: Dean

O - One wish: To find myself
O - One regret: Hahahaha

P - Part of your appearance you like best: Eyes
P - Perfectionist?: Yes, but I can't get anything RIGHT

Q - Quick or Slow: Too fast, then too slow :)
Q - Something random: I love trees

R - Reason to smile: People
R - Reality TV Show: Amazing Race

S - Song Last Heard: Rhapsody in Blue, Gershwin
S - Season: Autumn
S - Shoes you're wearing: Black shoes

T - Time you woke up: 7:15am
T - Time you went to bed: 1:15am
T - Time Now: 4pm
T - Time for bed: 12am

U - Unpredictable: Other people
U - Underwear: Boxers right now

V - Vegetable you hate: bean shoots (damn things get everywhere)
V - Vegetable you love: brussel sprouts
V - Vacation spot: Jasper, AB

W - Worst habit: Nail biting when anxious
W - Where are you going to travel next: England at Christmas!
W - Weather: A crisp autumn day!

X - X-tra special someone: My stuffed penguin, Pedro
X - X-rays: Once or twice, most recently my hand

Y - Year it is now: 2006
Y - Yellow: Wheat fields

Z - Zoo Animal: Penguins
Z - Zodiac Sign: Virgo

Capital Ex : Blue Rodeo

2006-08-01T12:04:00.000-06:00

For the past week and a bit, I took some flex time off of work and did double shifts volunteering as a first aider at the Capital Ex over at Northlands. It was great fun.

One night I was at Edfest when Blue Rodeo were playing. It was a quiet night for us. I stood stage right, watching the band, when a security guard ran over and in a frantic voice said, "There's a girl in the crowd and she's...", here he paused and calmed down, "...got a cut on her toe and needs a band-aid.". Funny guy.

"Can she come out to the first aid post?", I asked.

"She doesn't want to lose her spot.", he replied.

We're not supposed to wade into crowds, especially at concerts. We need to protect ourselves, and security are there to bring injured people to us. If it's super serious, we'll go in with a group of security people to transport someone out. I looked at him, he looked at me. I looked at the crowd of Blue Rodeo fans swaying happily to the mellow folk/country stylings of their favourite band. I shrugged, grabbed my torch (flashlight) and plasters (band-aids) and said, "I'll follow you".

He started weaving his way through the crowd, explaining that this was a test of his memory. When we got to the area, I spoke with the girl with the toe. She explained that she had gone back-countrying earlier and had ripped her toenail, then the girl in front of her stepped back and removed the whole thing for her. Ouch. I asked her if she wanted to come to the first aid post, but she was all "Blue Rodeo! Good spot! Staying here!". I told her I could hold the flashlight whilst she put on the band-aid (and that way she treats herself, so I didn't need to fill in any paperwork). She agreed, and before I knelt down to help her, I looked around at all the people surrounding us - a precaution to make sure I didn't get smacked in the head by a rowdy fan. Everyone appeared to be pretty relaxed, so I knelt down and helped her cover her toenail, and then gave her a spare band-aid and some infection control advice. That's fun during a loud concert - "GO TO THE DOCTORS IF IT GETS ICKY OKAY?".

I stood up and looked around, checking that everything was okay... And got a polite round of applause. One guy had even looked at my name tag and said, "Good job, Dean!". I made my way out (people moved out of the way without being asked) and returned to the first aid post.

Blue Rodeo fans. Not very rock and roll, but very courteous.

Slayer

2006-07-14T23:43:00.000-06:00

Several times on Tuesday I was approached by men asking me for two band aids. I asked them if they had injured themselves, and needed further help, and they told me that they just wanted to tape down their nipple piercings before going moshing. Slayer concerts are fun.

Ten Layers Of Me

2006-06-25T23:33:00.000-06:00

LAYER ONE: ON THE OUTSIDE
Name: Dean
Birth date: September 6
Birth Place: Harlow, Essex
Current Location: Edmonton, Alberta
Eye Color: Green/Hazel depending on mood and lighting
Hair Color: Grey
Righty or Lefty: Right
Zodiac Sign: Virgo

LAYER TWO: ON THE INSIDE
Your heritage: The Angles and the Saxons
Your fears: Finding myself
Your perfect pizza: Ground Beef, Jalapeno, Onion

LAYER THREE: YESTERDAY, TODAY, TOMORROW:
Your thoughts first waking up: I think I should go to work today
Your best physical feature: Eyes
Your bedtime: Around Midnight
Your most missed memory: Bali

LAYER FOUR: YOUR PICK:
Pepsi or Coke: Coke, I guess
McDonald's or Burger King: Burger King for the Onion Rings
Single or group dates: Single
Adidas or Nike: Nike, Saucony
Lipton Tea or Nestea: Lipton, I guess
Chocolate or vanilla: Chocolate
Cappuccino or coffee: Cappuccino IS coffee

LAYER FIVE: DO YOU?
Smoke: No
Cuss: Now and again
Take a shower: Love 'em
Have a crush: One or two (KIERA KNIGHTLEY! IF YOU ARE READING THIS, CALL ME!)
Think you've been in love: Yes
Like(d) school: Eventually I loved it
Want to get married: Hahah
Believe in yourself: Not really
Get motion sickness: Not really

LAYER SIX: IN THE PAST MONTH
Drank: Yes
Gone to the mall: Yes
Been on stage: No
Eaten Sushi: No
Been dumped: No
Gone skating: No
Dyed your hair: No

LAYER SEVEN: HAVE YOU EVER
Played a stripping game: Yes
Gotten beat up: No
Changed who you were to fit in: Yes

LAYER EIGHT: GETTING OLDER
Are you hoping to be married: Hahahahaha
How do you want to die: Quickly

LAYER NINE: IN A GIRL/GUY
Best eye color: Any
Short or long hair: Long

LAYER TEN: WHAT WERE YOU DOING...
1 MINUTE AGO: Reading emails
1 YEAR AGO: Feeling guilty
I FEEL: Sick - I have a cold
I HATE: Idiots
I HIDE: My emotions
I MISS: Things that are not good for me

Chapters

2006-06-07T23:19:00.000-06:00

Chapter 1: The Basics
Intials: DWS
Middle name: William
Current location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Height: 6'
Hair length: Short, grey
Eye color: Green/Hazel, depending on mood or lighting
Piercings: None
Birthmarks: None

Chapter 2: The Background
Do you live with your parents: Nope
Do you get along with your parents?: Yes
Are your parents married/seperated/divorced? Marries
Do you have any siblings? Two younger brothers, one youngest sister
What pets do you have?: None
What are their name(s): N/A

Chapter 3: Favorites
City: London
Vacation: India
Place lived: Harlow, Waltham Cross, Chalfont St. Giles, Edmonton
Clothing brand: MEC
Shampoo/conditioner: Couldn't tell you
Old nickelodeon show: Ren and Stimpy
Color: Green
Cheesy pick-up line: Don't use 'em, probably should
Flower: Self-raising

Chapter 4: Do You ...
Write memos on your hand?: No
Call people back?: Yes, generally
Sleep on a certain side of the bed?: I sleep on the edge of the bed
Think you're attractive?: No
Wear glasses or contacts?: Glasses for distance work
Have any weird pet peeves?: Use of English language, when I'm not GREAT at it myself

Chapter 5: Have You Ever ...
Gone skinny dipping?: Yes
Worn braces?: No
Broken a bone?: No
Had stitches?: Yes, four in my right knee after kneeling on some glass
Shoplifted?: No
Punched someone in the face?: No
Skipped school?: No
Taken painkillers?: Yes
Gone SCUBA diving?: Yes, only in a swimming pool, if that counts.
Been stung by a jellyfish?: No
Been stung by a bee?: Yes
Thrown up in a restaurant?: Not yet!
Been to overnight camp?: Yes?
Written a letter to Santa Claus?: No, but he used to come and visit our house in the run up to Christmas!
Been sent to the principal's office?: Yes
Made a prank phone call?: Yes
Been called a b***h?: Yes
Been called a Ho?: No
Met someone famous?: No
Climbed a tree?: Yes, I love climging trees.

Chapter 6: Random
If you could take back one thing, what would it be?: Hahahahaha
What time do you go to sleep?: Around midnight
Do you prefer blonde hair or brown hair?: Brown

Welcome!

2005-06-14T18:30:00.000-06:00

Most of the Sandman related names were taken a long time ago, but I've been known as 'Morpheus' online for over 17 years. Some habits are hard to break...

Northern Exposure: Busy Recently

2004-02-02T16:25:00.003-07:00

I'm sorry I haven't called recently. I started my new job mid-December, and I ended up working really hard, over a lot of weekends, to finish a proposal.

We receive requests from the Alberta government to propose a computer solution to a problem they have, and there are deadlines and structures and stuff.

Anyway, I had to be the Technical Architect for this one, and I've never done it before, so I had to work very hard. I'm very pleased with the results, we'll see if we win it in a few weeks.

Today is the first time I've really had a chance to sit at my desk and relax. Heh, I shouldn't even do that. I wanted to call you guys to chat, but the timings are usually all wrong.

Over the past two weeks, the temperature has been around -30C or lower. One day, with windchill, it was -46C. Last week, our car stopped - we had it at home, plugged in (all cars here have to have a heater block to keep the oil from freezing), and it does start, but it dies soon after. The battery is good, it's just too cold for the car.

This week it is supposed to get warmer, to maybe -10C or -5C. I can't wait. A few weeks ago I took Soph to the Muttart Conservatory and it was SO NICE to see green stuff. We were very happy there.

Soph organized a Chinese New Year party last week, and it went really well - lots of people came over (we had 15 and 2 kids in the place), and it was really good fun. A nice break for me, at the time. Also, last Tuesday I went to a Nickelback concert for first aid, got to see three bands for free - but was kept very busy with drunk girls, one of whom had to be rushed to the hospital. I ended up being an IV bag
holder for her, while the paramedics dealt with her. Good fun.

So, I'm keeping busy, and Sophia is well, and it's really cold here, and we miss everyone back home. I hope you are all feeling good, and that your "cold snap" I heard about was tolerable. Hehe.

Northern Exposure: Started my new job!

2003-12-15T12:36:00.002-07:00

I'm at work at my new job! I started today!

I had an interview a few weeks ago, then a follow up, then a technical code exam, then they offered me the job. They wanted me to start last week, but we went away to Calgary for the weekend to see Sophia's family.

It was her grandmothers 91st birthday. We saw lots of cousins who I've never seen - and some Soph hadn't seen for 15 years - and had a big Chinese banquet thing. It was fun, we stayed over at her cousin's house, and played around with all their children.

I was all worried about this job because it was so sudden, but now I'm just sitting here doing the things I like doing, and it's all good! I guess it was just nerves, because in this new job I'm now a Senior Consultant and I'm getting a little bit more money, too.

Over the weekend Sophia's company moved offices. For the past few weeks, when I wasn't having interviews, I was in her old office boxing up stuff for them, or in their new offices putting furniture together. It was lots of fun, great to do something physical for a change.

Speaking of that, since I left my old job, I've lost 5kg in weight. I think it's just because I haven't had any big lunches!

Christmas stuff:

We were originally going to come to England over Christmas
I was made redundant, so we said we'd stay here and save money
Sophia gets lots of holiday time, so we thought we'd drive to Vancouver and stay at her parents place there for the holiday
I got my new job and I don't know if I'll get any holiday!
We might just stay in Edmonton
Some of her friends get married in May, so we want to come home then, we'll definately see you all soon!

Tomorrow night I've invited some of my first aid people over for a "potluck dinner" - have you heard of them? It's where people come over and bring food or drink. I think it's pretty north american.

Wednesday we're going to see the Lord of the Rings - her company has booked out an entire cinema to see it!

Thursday we're going to see her friend and help her pack, she's bought a new place and moves in Jan.

Friday is her company party and it should be really good fun! After that, she's on holiday until the 5th of January, it's alright for some!

Anyway, I'll speak to you all soon!

Northern Exposure: You'll never guess what...

2003-08-19T19:03:00.001-06:00

...that's right! I had another bike accident on the high level bridge!

It really doesn't like me.

I was cycling south on the west side, I'd just got onto the bridge itself by turning the corner onto the bridge, and I clipped the railing on the right with my handlebar as I turned. This caused me to wobble at some speed until I stopped suddenly using only my nose.

I did not knock myself out. I was able to pick myself up and cycle the rest of the way home - mainly because my toe hurt too much to walk.

I'm okay, mainly once again because I was wearing a helmet. My left big toe is cut rather badly, but not deep. It has been bandaged up expertly by Sophia. I have a graze on my left leg. My chin took a whack, as did my nose, which is much bigger than it usually is... I'm going to have a pair of black eyes tomorrow, I'm sure. The nosebleed stopped fairly sharpish, but the dull throb in the conk is still there. My wrists are also aching, because I used my hands to stop some of the force of the impact. I'm sure after a rest they'll feel better.

This of course means I probably won't be in tomorrow, mainly to spare everyone the sight of my face. I'll let you know what happens, but really I'm just a bit battered. Also stupid. Ah well.

Northern Exposure: Fifteen

2003-04-09T18:06:00.003-06:00

I just got back from fifteen, I have the menu for Wednesday Evening here so I can type what I had:

Spiadini of smoked buffalo mozzarella and rosemary pancetta with sweet onion toasts
Grilled rib eye of McDuff beef (hung for 30 days) with potato mascarpone and horseradish pie, braised leeks and a little jus
Creme Brulee

We started at Smiths of Smithfield, a cool bar. Their absinthe cocktail had quite the kick in the tail. After a bit we went on to fifteen, we were very lucky (or rather jammy) to get reservations there, they have a three month waiting list.

The place was very cool indeed, a nice bar upstairs and a good sized dining area. The service was fun, especially as we were all being rather cheeky, and the food was fantastic. Everyone had lovely dishes, and my beef was really REALLY good - Alberta standard, we're talking!

My only minor niggle, and I think it's a niggle for niggles sake, is that the creme brulee wasn't warm and the burnt sugar was a bit sticky rather than melt-in-the-mouth - should have gone for the fantastic lemon torte, but it was still nice.

On Thursday morning I'm driving back over to see Sophia's parents. I'll be staying with them overnight, and if any of you are in the area and would like to pop over to their house, they've said they'd love to see you. This way those of you that know them know where to find them, there's parking, and plenty of cups of tea! Much easier to do this than try to meet up in various parts of Kingston. Give us a call if you can't find the place!

Friday I'll pop over to my old work place in Hemel and see everyone for lunch - I will be in the Crabtree from 12 onwards, so please tell everyone who might be interested!

Later that day I'll return to Harlow and go out for a curry with some friends, got to have that authentic English curry. Hang on, that sounds a bit odd. You know what I mean.

Saturday my family is having a get together at my parents house - again, if you're in the area and you'd like to pop in, do please feel free - anytime after lunchtime.

Sunday I'll try to meet up with a few more people from Harlow, and perhaps go shopping for those essential things I really miss (ginger nuts and worcestershire sauce crisps).

Monday I fly back to Edmonton - and it had better have warmed up!

I do hope to see as many of you as I can - drop me and email, give one of the sets of parents a call, it would be great to see you!

Northern Exposure: Home Again!

2003-04-05T01:37:00.003-07:00

I arrived! Yay!

I'm at my parents house on a Saturday morning, it's so lovely here. When I left Edmonton, it was snowing and the temperature was just below freezing. Sophia told me it was acutally -11C on Friday morning, too.

When I arrived in England I was stunned at the warm sunny weather, the light breeze, and how everything was growing and basically not covered in snow. Fantastic.

I took a coach from Heathrow to Harlow. It was really nice because it took me through areas I used to drive through, good to see how some things had changed and some had stayed the same. Harlow hadn't changed that much, it seems - or I've been away so long I couldn't tell.

I tried to surprise my mum in Sainsbury's, but she's left her shift early. Instead, I got a taxi home and just walked up the back path. My mum said to my dad, "That looks like Dean!". Hehehehe!

The dog, Star, went crazy for about a minute then was all "Oh look, a bone". It's like I never left for her, the silly thing.

I had some dinner and relaxed with the family, heading for bed fairly soon. I am probably going to see the family this weekend, but I hope to see as many people as possible!

My parents-in-law in Surbiton still don't know I'm here, so shh, I'm going to tell them I have a friend who might be able to pop over to have a look at their PC if they're in on a certain day, then turn up myself! :D

Can't wait to see you all soon!

Northern Exposure: Homeward Bound!

2003-03-31T16:07:00.001-07:00

I'm coming back to England for a while! YAY!

It's just me coming over, and it's just for 10 days or so. My project at work has stalled for a while, and I have some holiday free. Sophia is really busy still, so she can't afford the time off - but I'm homesick! She got to come home last year.

I am not sending this email to my parents or to her parents. I intend to get a coach from Heathrow to Harlow, and then turn up at my parents place to surprise them. I hope the dog doesn't bite me. Hehe.

After spending some time with them I'll arrange for a "friend of mine" to pop over to Sophia's parents house to "have a look at their PC", I can't wait to see their faces! I'd better fix their PC though! I'll probably stay overnight with them, but only for a day or so.

So - some of my family are recieving this. Don't tell either mum and dad. Let me know if anything is planned at any of the weekends or any time I'm over!

My parents and family are my priority, but I am going to make sure I see all my friends, Harlow, Kingston, London, wherever. This includes a few lunchtime sessions with the Hays Consulting people, and definately a drinkie or two at a pub in Hemel (yay Parker!).

I can't wait to see you all again!

Northern Exposure: Smoke on the Water

2002-10-29T15:18:00.002-07:00

Thursday October 29 2002 14:00
This morning I boarded the LRT - (Light Rail Transit) at the University Station. I get there by catching a bus from just outside HUB.

The journey takes me above ground as I cross the LRT bridge over the North Saskatchewan River. When I cycled to work, this was the bit I enjoyed the most - heading down the hill to the bridge, building up a bit of speed, coasting gently over the bridge and gazing out over the river valley scenery in the early morning light.

Since my bike accident, I've been taking the bus-and-LRT combo into work. The view is no less stunning, and as I looked out across the valley today I could see smoke on the water. It was actually steam, rising off the water in strange circular patterns, caused by the morning sun.

The temperature this morning when I came in was about -12C - as I write this at 14:00 it is -8C - and the sun was very warming, which I guess caused the strange effect. All too quickly we passed back into the tunnel, and two stops later I got off and walked to work.

We had some snow the other day, and it all but melted, then this weekend it snowed again, and a little bit more. It's cold, and winter is coming. It will get worse, but one thing I'm hoping is that it won't last as long as last year - it was still snowing in April. I'm still finding it hard to adjust, because it's nice to wrap up warm and be all toasty, sitting in Second Cup with a hot chocolate, but then again it's still bloody cold.

My new route to work means I don't need to stay outside that much, which is very fortunate.

I've recovered from my bike accident, the cuts have healed over and apart from an occasional twinge in my lower back I seem to be fine. The bike is currently chained up outside a repair shop, I just need to find the time to go there and ask them to take a look at it. What with the road conditions now, I might get them to check it over and then just store it for the winter.

I'm enjoying my Wing Chun - I took a Butterfly Knives class last Sunday, which was good - as part of the course fee I got a set of my own knives to practice with. Very nifty. I'm also going extra days, because Sophia wanted to keep going and normally the lessons are the same days as her Taiko practices. We started going to the Tue/Thu lessons as a community league hall on the
southside of Edmonton, but we've since found a smaller class in the west side at a community college. The smaller class sizes mean more attention and that really helps. Attending the extra classes is good, because due to various commitments I often end up missing one or two.

Speaking of extra commitments, the St John Ambulance duties are going really well too. I've attended quite a few now, including an Oilers game and some dragon boat races. I hope to write more about my experiences with them, as this is supposed to be a quick email.

Work is going well, we're finally into the big development phase (although saying that, I'm finishing off some more design documents). The atmosphere here is good, we all know we're aiming for a 31-Dec deadline.

Sophia and I are still thinking about our holiday plans this year - I'm still building up vacations days anyway - and we might not come back to England this Christmas, but instead go somewhere really warm in January or February for a week and a bit. We're not sure, still thinking about options and prices, and when to schedule a trip "back home".

My mum came over about a month ago, just as I had my bike accident, which limited the number of things I could do at the time. She had a great time, though, and we were so pleased to see her. I think she managed to explore more of Edmonton that we had!

Anyway, I'll write more soon, must get on with some things!

Northern Exposure: The Miracle of the Internet

2002-09-16T13:10:00.000-06:00

Please find attached a picture of my manky face and arm as taken by my webcam. I'm sure you'll all be delighted to receive this.

I had a bike accident this morning. I'm currently concussed so who knows what I'm really saying. Sophia has to stay off work in order to ask me every four hours who I am. If she doesn't know by now, we've got problems!

My mother came over to Canada on Saturday. I was going to work today and take a day off tomorrow, and perhaps Friday, plus a few next week, to show her around. It's her first time leaving England, and she's really quite stunned by all this "new country feeling". I say that, but she's gone to the West Ed Mall for shopping - don't want to spoil her fun by telling her that her eldest son skidded down a hill on his face.

So - I'm off today. I've got a shiny face because it's covered in Polysporin (that stuff is sticky, it's antiseptic and all that, they use it all the time over here) and my head hurts a lot. I have no recollection of half an hour of my life. I remember changing gears on my bike and the next thing I remember was answering some ambulance guy when he was asking me who I was and where my Alberta Health Care card was. My right shoulder is currently hurting because of the typing, and I generally ache all over. However, because I wore my helmet, I can still talk and type and generally be pampered by my wife (mmm tea and buttered bagels).

Oww oww oww. I hate this. Still, could have been much worse.

Northern Exposure: Wicky Wicky Wild Wild West

2002-07-20T21:27:00.003-06:00

Week Beginning Monday May 13th 2002
I'm composing the majority of this update in a hotel room in Vancouver - the Delta Pinnacle - and I can see the head office of my new company from the window. I can also see Vancouver bay - all very nice.

What has happened over the last month?

My wing chung is going well, I'm working towards my orange belt. It has been good to get back into the swing of things, I've missed it (I took a break in the depths of winter). Of course this trip West means I'm going to miss another few lessons, plus next weekend is a long one - Victoria Day, I think.

Generally Canadians seem to get much less basic holiday than Europeans, but there's a statutory holiday just about every month. Still strange to go from 5 weeks holiday a year to just 3, but there you go.

Several weekends ago I ran my first 5km race! It was the Sorrentino's Garlic Fun Run, and I finished in 34m 04s, I'm quite proud of that. My first proper race! I did a fair bit of preparation beforehand, but not a whole load. The second lap around Hawrelak Park was really tough.
Finishing made it all worthwhile. Afterwards, we ate really stinky garlic pasta. A day later my calves were ok - stretching out after the run really helped. I may even have caught the running bug, I used to find distance running boring but my mindset has changed.

A few weeks ago I saw Spiderman. What a great film, a super hero tale that works, much better than Batman. Maybe perhaps because of Willem Defoe, who was excellent as the Green Goblin, especially when NOT in costume. Sure, the film had a few dodgy moments, script-wise (a dash of corn), and I understand it has the most mistakes of any film recently (clearly the true purpose of the internet), but it was a great action romp.

What made it even more enjoyable was the company - and I mean that two ways. The whole trip was arranged by BioWare, last time they did something like this was for Lord of the Rings, but THIS time they managed to block book the back four rows. We had to queue with everyone else (good fun, lots of screens playing old Spidey cartoons), but when we got inside we walked to the upper reaches where my lovely wife said, "Why yes, I do work for BioWare!". Man, that's still as cool today as it was over a year ago.

Anyway, we ended up near the back in the middle, surrounded by other like-minded geeks (trust me, its a mother lode there). It was quite cool to watch many people get turned away at the barriers (manned on both sides). Some people had a bit of a grumble, too, and we did check the forums in the morning to see if there was any "you suck because you stole the best seats" posts (none that we could find).

We also went to a talk and a signing by Terry Pratchett - now this is unusual, I thought, what is he doing in Edmonton, so far North? (he was on a Canadian tour, it seems). We heard about the potential Pratchett presentation through a guy at BioWare who knew a girl at
Greenwoods who were arranging the whole thing. They wanted to make sure enough people were interested before they arranged
his visit.

The day of the talk we grabbed a book each (there was talk of signings!) and got a taxi to the Provincial Museum of Alberta. The taxi was of course driven by a guy with road rage (to be honest, the first bad one I've had over here) but we made it in one piece. Despite having to explain to the driver that no, I hadn't seen the car in front fail to turn on the green filter light because sitting in the back as a paying customer I was unable to see the traffic signal.

We were a little early, so we got to see the really serious geeks with the multiple books, or the strange goth couple, or the rabid fantasy collectors. Soon the main doors were opened, and (because Canada is a civilised country that knows how to queue) we were fairly near the front. We realised that one of the books was dedicated from Sophia to me (shortly after we started going out) and we couldn't really ask him to sign it "love from Sophia... and Terry" (although perhaps "love from Terry and Sophia", maybe he wouldn't mind first place), so as the bookshop had a stand there we quickly grabbed a copy of "The Last Hero". In the queue with us was a university student, probably under twenty, who was an absolute delight. We'd ask her about the books ("who is your favourite character?" for example, or "what do you think of Rincewind?") and she would just gush excitedly about the question, how much she enjoys his books, and how she couldn't believe The Terry Pratchett was here in Edmonton. She really helped the time pass before the auditorium opened.

When it did we found ourselves right at the front, good seats. After an introduction from a local representative, the man himself took the stage. Unreal. Too cool. This is the guy who wrote the Discworld books. I reread them over the Christmas break when we were snowed in. I love those books. Clearly not as much as some people there. They scared me.

Terry did a little stand-up show, a talk about how he started doing what he does and how he keeps doing it. Very witty, wry observational humour, as you'd expect. Great fun. Cool stuff about being horizontally rich rather than vertically rich - the difference being how these days he can afford lots of books but has no pressing need to buy ski resorts. At the end, before the book signings, he asked for questions. I even got one of mine answered (the lame "do any of your characters run away from you?", heh).

Because we were one of the first in I thought we were going to be one of the last out, but for some reason we ended up in the middle of the queue. We saw our bouncy friend way ahead, and because of how the line was arranged we were right by the signing desk. As we shuffled along we became aware of the group just behind us. Ubergeeks. You know the kind. The type that smell slightly stale, and slightly of grease. The non-car kind of grease. Anyway, they were very loudly talking about different game systems, saying how a was better than b but D&D was better than a and b. There we were, several Neverwinter Nights programmers, testers, and their other halves, listening to these guys go on - "if I had a tower shield, and another one, and another - if I had four tower shields, and I made holes in them and used wire to tie them together, then I was inside them, and they had handles so I could lift them and move around (assuming a strength of at least 17), then I BET YOU my armor class would be really good". You get the idea. If only they knew what the BioWare people were working on.

Shuffle, shuffle, shuffle, we eventually made it to the front of the queue. It was pretty fantastic to meet Mr. Pratchett. He is very friendly to his fans, always happy to chat and sign.

Afterwards we were offered a lift back by some friends. Whilst we waited for them to finish up we noticed another set of geeks who were sitting in line of sight of Terry. They had noticed a guy in the line with a BioWare polo shirt on and chatted to him. He gave them his business card, and they were just showing it to each other and making "isn't this cool" noises. I just found it funny that they were doing this in sight of Terry Pratchett.

What made the whole thing even more surreal was how the week before a set of European journalists had been flown over to check out the new BioWare game, including Terry Pratchett's daughter, who writes for PC Zone magazine. Small world, eh?

Terry made mention of Neil Gaiman, another of my favourite authors. I just finished reading his latest book "American Gods". Very good stuff.

I rarely mention my vitiligo, but recently I signed up to a mailing list that I was last a member in 1996, I think I changed email accounts. It was good to sign up again to find out how others with vitiligo are doing. For those of you that don't know, vitiligo is why I have had grey hair since age 8, and why I never tan. It's what Michael Jackson has - he went through total depigmentation to not be so blotchy. Honest. No, really, he did. The nose job and other stuff wasn't related, mind you.

Anyway, I also saw a Chinese girl on the bus with vit a while back. It made me realise how lucky I actually am - despite all the teasing and bullying I had when I was younger. Her neck and chin were pure white while the rest of her was a nice golden colour. I'm just pale (understatement) with salt'n'pepper hair.

Hmm. I'm six foot, reasonably fit, need to lose a few pounds, have a lazy left eye 'cos I scratched my lens when I was born (so I'm told), have vitiligo, could develop LHON (Lebers Hereditary Optic Neuropathy) , have a scar on my brow where I fell out of a bunkbed onto a toy fire engine. Oh, and a few years ago I went to the doctor and told him I thought I got plaster dust in my pores which was why I developed a rash - only to be told it was Shingles. It's a wonder I can get by on a day-to-day basis, isn't it?

We were going to see Attack of the Clones when it came out, but we heard there were no pre-booked tickets - you just had to turn up and try to buy them. A group of us went on the Sunday instead - it was still packed out, but a lot less hassle. No BioWare people to buy the cinema out, hehe. The film was really good, I enjoyed it a lot. Anakin was such a wuss though - he really could have been played by Harry Enfield as Kevin doing his "That's SO unfair!" bit. As Soph said, why would anyone want to fall in love with him? Still, huge jedi battles and Yoda kicking arse. Nice.

I'm getting rather worried about spring in Edmonton - before I came out here it was brown and horrid over there. The late winter snap (snow through April, VERY unusual) has caused all the plant life to slow down big time. Vancouver is just delightful though, green, glowing, gorgeous. All the flowers are out, the people walk the streets, very nice indeed.

My second night in Vancouver, I walked to Robson Street, the "Oxford Street" of Vancouver, and from there to Chinatown. I wandered all around the place, marvelling at how things in Canada seem to shut really early. I guess it's because there are only 17 million people living here, so there are maybe one or two fun places the night owls hang out. I ended up at an Earls on Robson street, where I had cedar planked chinook salmon with maple cider butter and asparagus - mmmm - when in BC, eat BC food.

On Wednesday evening once the course had finished I took a bus down Granville Road to Granville Island, a really funky little place connected to the mainland by a landbarbridge. I wandered around the island perimeter before checking out all the shops and markets on the interior. As I write this I'm sitting at a table in a pub / restaurant / bar called Bridges, sipping a Granville Island Pale Ale, waiting for my smoked duck pizza to arrive. I wonder if it was a Granville Island Duck? It is lovely here, checking out the boats, taking in the sea air, basking in the sunlight...

Thursday July 11th 2002
I'm just testing out my new foldable keyboard for the iPaq which is now technically a HP iPaq, not a Compaq iPaq, but I'm not fussy. Unfortunately it has an adapter, so it's not quite a self contained unit, but it does seem rather good for typing. Wheee! I shall enjoy taking this with me next week for my course in Vancouver!

Tuesday 16th July 20:10MST
Currently several thousand feet up in the air flying to Vancouver on a WestJet flight. One of the other guys from my company - and my current project - is sitting just behind me. I'm feeling a little off colour, maybe it's the heat. I went home early because of this, and fell asleep until I was woken by the door (good thing too, I didn't intend to sleep and I didn't want to miss my flight!). The person at the door was Leanne, a friend of our upstairs neighbour. I'd offered to courier something to Vancouver for her - a set of jewellery that she designed and created that was comissioned by a rather cool jewellery store on Robson Street. Pretty cool stuff.

I'm also taking some gifts for a friends ex-boyfriend. He moved to Vancouver for his residency, which I think is the last part before you become a real doctor. I gleaned this information from Dougie Howser M.D. some years ago. It'll be good to see him again - the ex-boyfriend, not Dougie Howser.

So, time for another recap. When I got back from Vancouver last time, I had this almost finished opus of an email pretty much done. I thought I'd be able to polish it off one evening and sent it out pronto, but then I got really busy at work. We were working on our Proof of Concept for the project we're doing - this is where you create something that does the major bits of what the final project should do, so it accesses the data and shows the functionality, but it's not the final system. It's to prove we understand what's required, and also that we can actually do it. It got rather hectic towards the end, and we has a mini-crunch time. Nothing like Sophias crunch time, mind you - I did pop in over the weekend, but I wasn't doing 9am to 11pm (at least) every single day for a month.

We got the proof of concept done, and then we started on the design work for the project. All very good. This course I'm going on will help, too - it's a new design methodology (whatever that means).

Oh yes, and Neverwinter Nights, the game Sophia was working on, got finished. They had a big push and got it out just in time. Everyone was really relieved and happy, and they spent ages signing boxes for various people and charities. The launch party was good fun too, it was farewell for some people because once the game was done they moved on to other companies or in some cases other countries. The party was also the last night Sophia was here before she flew off on her holiday.

They gave her two weeks extra holiday because the game shipped, over and above her normal amount (which is 15 days here in Canada, very odd after coming from a country where we both had 25!). She hasn't had a holiday since February of 2001, the poor thing, so I sent her off for a well deserved rest. Of course, I would have loved to join her, but I had just started my new job, needed to be there for the project, and
hadn't built up enough days yet.

Oh my word, someone on this flight is shuffling a deck of cards again and again, this is the third time I've been on a flight and have that happen, I really am going to snap one day and kill 'em with the ace of spades. IT'S SHUFFLED ALREADY! GAH!!

Sorry.

Anyway, Sophia flew with a friend to London, and spent a few days there with her family. She managed to see some friends around London, but didn't have a lot of time. She was bound for Mauritius, and the flights are a lot cheaper from London than from Edmonton. She's been there a while now, it's their equivalent of Winter (I think they're just south of the equator) but it's not the wet season. She's relaxing and enjoying herself lots, and while I can't wait for her to come back. I know this is just what she needs after all the hassle of crunch time.

While she has been away I've been sorting out our house like crazy. We live in a three bedroom basement suite, underneath a young couple with two lovely daughters (3 and 5, I think). He is a graphic artist at BioWare, she is an agent for improv comedy artistes, and they're really nice. We've got a large size front room, a good sized kitchen, a study (the computer room), a dressing room (the back bedroom) and our bedroom. Since our stuff arrived from the UK we've not really had time to sort it all out, so I have really gone to town, moving and mixing and sorting and throwing and all sorts of things. It's been very rewarding and I feel like I "own" everything again because I've touched it - if that makes sense. I hope Sophia likes what I've done, anyway.

This Stowaway Keyboard is working really well, most impressive. The adapter for the iPaq 3850 is a bit fiddly to use, but I think I'm getting the hang of it.

Tuesday 16th July 23:15PST
Whee! Just got back from a sports bar where the other member of the team and I had a few beers. Watching an old Buffy (the one where Xander and Cordy kiss for the first time, hehe). Fun stuff.

Okay back to the stories. You're really bored by all this aren't you?

I spent Canada Day wandering around Whyte Avenue (Soph was on holiday at this point), checking out the parades and generally soaking up the patriotic feeling. The only problem was the weather - it had been so dry over the past few days that the normal waterfall from the high level bridge was cancelled, and there were no fireworks allowed. So, instead, I had a nice lunch at O'Byrnes, that Irish pub on Whyte Avenue.

I passed my orange belt test for Wing Chun! We had to demonstrate attacks and counter-attacks, hammer fist (a Shaolin attack), and some Wing Chun kicks. It was good fun, and it feels great to be up another level! We started Monkey Form II, well I say "we", the rest of the class had done it for about three months. It was good to watch, which is all I could do after the first few moves!

Hmm Jay Leno is on tv now. He's got my hair and chin.

I found out that the St. Johns Ambulance are active in Canada - what with it being a Commonwealth and all - so I went along to an orientation event to volunteer. There's not really a "First Aid at Work" as there was in England, so being a volunteer is an ideal way to keep up my skills - and besides, I really like doing it. There was some confusion over my qualifications, just the conversion from England to Canada, but I think it's okay. Anyway, I've signed up with a unit that's really close to our house. I've been to a few meetings now, and they're just basic office stuff - who can attend what event, who is taking the minutes, that sort of thing. By doing this, I have to volunteer to do at least two events a month, and I'll have my 60 hours a year that I need (they count the meetings, y'see). The events range from antiques fairs to rock concerts, covering fun runs and hockey events too. I'm looking forward to my first event, which is a six pm to midnight shift for the Klondike Days.

Oh, the Klondike Days - this is a two week long festival in Edmonton to celebrate those days of yore where, I think, people from the area managed to persuade prospectors that there was a route through to the Yukon. So, for two weeks everyone gets gold rush fever, someone gets appointed as Klondike Kate and maraudes around with her posse (I SAID POSSE) and there are fairground rides and food of the world. We're going there to enjoy it, as well as doing some first aid shifts there.

Seeing as I'm on probation with them, I can't wear the official brigade shirt so instead I have a tabard. They insist on calling it a pinafore, but seriously, it's a tabard. I'm not going to wear a pinny.

Now, I know the history of the St. Johns Brigade, how they fought in the crusades but then stopped fighting and started fixing people. They have a religious history, but during the orientation it was clearly stated that they were multi-denominational. However, my unit has a prayer at the start of each meeting, and while I respect the history and traditions, I don't feel comfortable participating.

Wednesday 17th July 21:20
The course was good today, started slow but soon got brain-achey, heh. I got back from Gas Town earlier, the historic part of Vancouver. The other guy from the Edmonton branch took me to a really nice microbrewery called the Steam Works, I had a very nice steak and a couple of very good beers.

So, where were we? As well as the Klondike Days in July, I think August is the Fringe Festival too - lots of funky plays and shows around the Whyte Ave area. Soph did a few last year and really enjoyed them.

I was really happy when Neverwinter Nights was finished - I was a little cynical when it was being developed, but when I had a chance to play it I recaptured some of the feeling I had when I played D&D back at school. It was great fun to romp through dark passages with Sophia. Currently I'm playing a half-elven druid who has a badger as an animal companion, and Soph is an elven ranger. We have a henchman each too, so it's a good crowd. I love badgers, and mine really kicks arse. Yissing, his name is. I reached a level where I could transform into an animal of my choice, and after a while Sophia said "Hey you summoned another badger! Wait! YOU ARE A BADGER!", then she cracked up. Later one when she was checking a room for traps she came out to fine me chasing Yissing around my henchman. Hehehe. Great game, and not just
because of the badgers.

Ahh! Another thing I forgot! We've almost (so close!) almost got our new car! We've gone for a deal through my new work, and we're getting a nice new Ford Focus ZX5 - I like 'em. Anyway, we were almost ready to get them and then the agent mentioned how he'd need our Alberta Driving licenses. Ooops, we don't have one. I had to take my test again - and the first time I failed. Yup - I was doing really well then on the last stretch to the test centre I passed a cop by the side of the road, checked my speed, "yup, 60kph, just right" and once we got back the examiner told me a few minor things I could improve on and then explained how that stretch of road was 50kph, how he was worried that the cop might have pulled me over, and how a speeding violation was an automatic fail.

Gutted? Yes. Embarassed? Yes. Still, I told you about it, which takes the sting out. Oh, and during the test I was telling the guy how my dad was a driving instructor. The shame!

I booked the test again for as soon as I could. For both tests, I borrowed a car from our upstairs neighbours, and the second time I went out early to get the car only to find the battery was flat! ARGH! Always an adventure. We had to call a cab, they give people a boost for a small fee, and then I was on my way. The examiner turned up late, so the battery had a chance to recharge.

I passed the test with a perfect score, and you should have seen how carefully I kept to the speed limits throughout, hehe.

We've moved offices too. Well, basically we have another office a little further west of downtown (but still in downtown). There will be support and development staff here. Usually we do development at the client site, but sometimes they ask us to do it at our own offices. This just enables us to expand. The new location is almost exactly opposite where we live, just over the river. Because its so nice now, I'm cycling to work and back every day. The river valley is really steep, but I can cross the High Level Bridge so the gradient isn't that bad. There are still a few nasty hills though.

Thursday 18th July 22:20
Just got back from a restaurant in the Kitsilano area of Vancouver, down near the University of British Columbia. It was called Fatso's and they had a Thursday special on, nice blues / dixie style place. I went with our friends ex and some of her other friends. We had a good time.

Today I paid for my Scott eVest, which I got through my company with a special deal - they got 'em branded with the company logo. The jacket itself is fantastic, so many pockets for so many bits and bobs - the stowaway keyboard, the headphone, everything. It made going through airport security really easy - show and turn on the pocket pc and the mobile phone, then put the jacket through the xray machine, nice and simple.

The course was more difficult today, and promises to get even more complex tomorrow. We should finish early, though, and our flights back to Edmonton isn't 'til much later. I also confirmed that Soph flies in at midnight on Saturday, pretty late. I get most of Saturday to finish everything off, but still! I'm missing her loads, hehe.

Ah well, it's late now, I was watching Buffy as I wrote these last bits. That should be pretty much it for this big email, it's been a long time coming though, I'd apologise but I made you read it all, heh.

Friday 19th July 23:20MST
Woo hoo! I'm 20,000feet in the air on my flight back to Edmonton. The course finished early, around 16:30, and we got chatting to one of the ladies on the course about what we could do this evening. She knew a guy who had a micro-brewery, and who sold his wares through a bar a little way downtown. Clearly this was meant to be, so we wandered down to the place - Sorbeez - and had quite a few pints of Storm Brewery's India Pale Ale. Very nice indeed. I topped it off with a pint of Strongbow and a pint of Guinness (the cider was to be expected - not so good - and the stout was quite disappointing - a bit of a burnt taste to it, maybe sharing the pipes with something else), but my companion stayed with the IPA. After we finished, we popped back to our respective hotels which were keeping our bags for us, and got a taxi to the airport. After checking in for our flights, we had a few more pints at a bar before eventually turning up for our flight. I think I've drunk more in the past three days that I have in the past six months. Very nice.

We're starting our descent so it's almost time to turn this off and put it away - we're going to arrive around midnight, maybe a little earlier because the driver of this plane has got his schwerve on, but this is good training because Sophia's flight arrives late tomorrow. I'm preparing myself for a late night of unpacking. Hehe. I wonder if she got me any presents. I've already received the first set of things from her - english tea and english mustard and that luxury, Branston pickle. Yay!

Right, the seatbelt sign is on, time to put this away!

Saturday 20th July 21:20MST
Well I finished tidying up the house today. A friend went away to Sylvan Lake for the weekend, and lent us her car so I can pick up Sophia. She's landing in just over an hours time, I so can't wait! We chatted for a while last night online.

I'm going to end this off now, finally - it's taken a while! Sorry for the delay!

Northern Exposure: Snow! Argh! Not Again! I thought we'd seen the last of it!

2002-04-15T11:23:00.002-06:00

It's been a long time since I wrote one of these "here's what I've been doing" things. Bad me! Bad!

On Saturday it was wonderfully warm for the first time this year. We walked over to the University and I went to a Wing Chun class whilst Sophia went for a run around the area. We were both really tired out afterwards, and it was a lovely sunny day - really nice, about 10C or 12C. On the way back, I commented how all we needed was a rain shower to wash away all the remaining snow and dirt and gravel.

Sunday came along all wet! It was raining all day! I really do need to watch what I say. I went over to the shops for some supplies (our local Safeway), and Sophia went for another jog. She met me at the supermarket and after a quick wander around, back off home we went. As it was a miserable day outside (but very refreshing, and quite warm (3C or 5C)) we made oatmeal cookies using a recipe we got from the internet. They turned out REALLY yummy - very pleased with this.

It was a really nice weekend. Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning ready for another week at work, looked outside the window and saw almost a foot of snow. Really. Almost a foot. I checked the weather, got ready, opened the door, and had to very carefully walk up the few steps from our basement apartment. Slogging to the bus stop was pretty funny. It wasn't cold at all, but the snow was relentless, and the bus was late. I must admit that sometimes during my time in this wonderful country I have literally had to suppress maniacal giggles when thinking about the weather.

I sneaked a little reference into the previous paragraph that some of you might not know about - I've managed to get a job! I'm now working as a Consultant. My role is a Microsoft Developer, and they're giving me some training in the new technologies (all the .NET stuff) before putting me on some fun projects. As a consultant, I'll be working at the offices of the companies, rather than in our offices. I've only been here a few weeks, and I'm still settling in but it's all very exciting, and I'm really pleased. For the job (well that's my excuse) I got a pocket pc (if you're interested, it's a Compaq iPaq 3850). I'm very happy with it - easy to use, very friendly, very sexy.

I get the bus to work. It takes about 10 minutes to go from where we live (south of the river, just north of the really funky part of town (which is where Sophia's company is)) to get Downtown. After I get off the bus, I can wander through two malls to get to my building - so I can avoid the elements if I want/need to.

Stuff I'd missed over the past few months!

We missed you all loads over Christmas, as we stayed here for the whole thing. A few days over the holiday break we didn't even leave the house at all, as it was around -29 outside during the day.

We saw our first live ice hockey game on the 15th of December - it was between Tampa Bay and the Oilers (of course, GO OILERS!). Lots of fun! We ended up really high near one end, and sat next to a cool retired army guy who told us all about the rules, and why these seats are particularly good ("You get to see the play go back and forth, and flying pucks don't knock your teeth out" - works for me). The Oilers won that match, and the crowd went totally bonkers.

Also back in December we saw Harry Potter (enjoyed it a lot) and had an entire staff outing to see Lord of the Rings with BioWare. They block booked part of the cinema, and we all went along in the afternoon. Fantastic fun, great film.

Plus there was the snowboarding in January - BioWare managed to book an evening at a local ski centre (quite impressive considering Edmonton is very far away from the mountains). Sophia may have mentioned how she
did. I certainly didn't manage any "720 Canadian Bacons to a Late Japan Air - With a Wedgie", but I did eventually manage to go down the bunny slopes all the different ways. Insert joke about "left side, right side, backside, face" here, and you'd not be far off. Of course, I didn't manage to get rope burn on my eye, unlike some.

In January we signed up for a Taiko (Japanese drumming) Workshop. It was really good fun. One of our friends over here has been doing it for over a year and we've always wanted to give it a try. Earplugs, blisters on the hands, headaches from trying to learn the songs - but really incredible when the whole class managed to get the
whole thing sounding right. After the workshop was over we were invited to sign up for a "pre-apprenticeship". Quite a few people did, and for the next few Sundays we were trying to learn new songs, working on our stance and technique, and generally trying to look like we knew what we were doing. After it was all over, they went away to
deliberate - and unfortunately I didn't get in. Sophia did though, and I had a fantastic time, if you get a chance to try this, I really recommend it!

That's why I'm continuing with Wing Chun, as the Taiko sessions are at the same time (Mondays and Wednesdays). Sophia is doing lots of running as well as the Taiko (she starts proper on Wednesday), she's training up. I went back to Wing Chun for the first time in ages last week. Lots of the people who were yellow belts are now orange belts,
but it all soon came flooding back to me. Rather painfully, when we were doing balance trapping exercise and I caught my finger when blocking. Still, all part of the fun.

We're going to see Terry Pratchett give a talk over here soon, pretty cool that he's coming all the way over to Edmonton. If any of you lot feel like coming over, just let us know and we'll pick you up from the airport. Trust me, the snow WILL melt soon.

Northern Exposure: Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting...

2001-12-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

Last Friday evening, we went to O'Byrnes again. I had an Irish Stew, and Sophia had some fish and chips. We chatted for a while over a pint, and we were both thinking how like Irish Pubs everywhere other than Ireland this place was (although there were a few pubs in Dublin that sort of fit this stylised ideal). A guy came over to take our plates - not one of the usual waitresses - and he had an Irish accent.

Well, that blew our theory out of the water. Maybe it was really authentic.

On the way home, the weather amazed us again. Little ice crystals were suspended in the air, floating down slowly. The lights caught them and they twinkled delightfully, but we soon noticed they started settling on our eyebrows and lashes. Fairy-tale-christmas-cake it may have looked, but it started to sting.

The snow brings out the Sherlock Holmes in me. We've got a theory about certain types of Canadians:

a lot of them shuffle their feet when they walk
a lot of them walk very close behind you

We had no idea why they shuffle their feet, and we think they walk close behind you because there are less than a million living in Edmonton and they must crave some kind of human contact. For us, coming from England and hanging around in London, it's quite strange. Most British people are very protective of their personal space, and it makes the paranoid reflex we seem to have developed twitch a little.

Anyway, back to the snow. I've seen footprints where, like "normal" people, the planter has lifted their feet up and lowered them into the snow carefully, to avoid getting wet shoes and soggy trousers. I've also seen lots of shuffling footsteps all over the place. It must be environmental or something.

Where it has settled without being disturbed, the snow is about 9 inches deep. Near our house there's an apartment complex (in England they're called maisonettes) and a cyclist has cut across the snow - at regular intervals the vague imprint of the pedals and the bottom of the feet can be seen. It's very cool, but in a 'not very exciting' way.

On Monday night, Sophia did her belly-dancing recital - I'm sure she'll give you her own side of things, but I can tell you it was not boring at all. About two hours of young ladies showing how well they can wiggle their tummies - and the bits just above and below them - was enough to capture my attention. Very good fun.

Last night was my Wing Chun exam (hence the title of this email). I passed, it went very well. At one point I punched when I should have blocked, but that was just nerves - it all went okay. The cycle there and back was a lot more hellish - this weather has gone from being funny to being deadly serious. I'm seriously concerned about my nose, it seems to act like a heatsink, radiating all the heat-energy from my body. Troublesome, no?

We'll have to get some pictures up of the two of us in our winter gear - the GoreTex jackets are great for stopping the wind and we just layer beneath them. Everyone is telling us to get some quilted down jackets for when the temperature goes below -25, but I'm counting on global warming here.

We still haven't seen Harry Potter, we plan to do that maybe this weekend. I've heard good things, of course, but then it is Harry Potter.

Northern Exposure: Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow

2001-11-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

It's currently -17 here, and it's midday.

We've had a lot of snowfall over the past week. On Monday I cycled to Wing Chun and nearly froze to the bike. I went down the alleys that run down the middle of each block, they had a lot of packed snow on them but at least there was no traffic, so it was safer. I did skid around a bit, mind you.

We've found a tea shop just around the corner called Cargo and James. It's very good there - we still have some PG Tips here, but they do some really strange, exotic teas. I had some Monks Tea the other day, which Sophia thought smelt like marshmallows. It was very nice – first time I've really drunk a black tea with no milk or sugar (I have PG Tips with milk, and Earl Grey with sugar, etc.).

Last Friday we went to a local Irish pub – O'Byrnes. On Fridays they have an all you can eat fish and chips. I had the one plate, mind you. If only the chips were real chips, rather than fries, it would be perfect. Still, the guinness there is good, and they do lots of other nice beers and ales.

Next week I take my Wing Chun exam, hopefully I'll get to yellow belt. I'm really looking forward to it, I've been going for quite a while but due to things like our furniture arriving and me damaging my foot I haven't been able to go as much as required. Oh, and it's not that we won't go somewhere that doesn't have a web site, it's more like everywhere around here has one. :)

Oh, that's right - our furniture arrived a few weeks ago. I can't tell you how good it is to be sleeping on a bed again, rather than on the (fantastic, magical, but not very supportive over 2 months) self-inflating mattress. We've got all our stuff in place now, just about. I'm waiting for a claim form from the movers - they damaged a number of items that they packed themselves.

Not that bad considering the distance, and we're most upset about the sake cup, because it was part of a set. We're sure they can fix the divan drawer, too. The other thing I'm waiting on is the Canadian movers appearing again to remove all the boxes the stuff came in - I've flat packed 'em all, and asked them two weeks ago, but still nothing. Plus, now it's snowing. Well, more fool them.

The owners of the basement suite we're renting had two of the rooms carpeted. The computer room feels much nicer, and the back bedroom is now also carpeted. This means the only rooms NOT covered are the kitchen, hall and bathroom. Feels a lot more cozy now. When we've got everything settled, we'll take a few pics to bore you silly. Oh, the larger of the two bedrooms (which was just carpeted) is Sophia's Dressing Room. We have the bed in the smaller room, as it's more cozy and gets better light in the morning.

Our house in England is now rented. A single tenant has moved in, yay! I think that's about all - I must do these little updates more often.