All Archives | Valerie Moss

April 16, 2019April 15, 2019

Happy Birthday Valerie’s Variety Pod

Happy 1st Birthday Valerie’s Variety Podcast!

Welcome back to Valerie’s Variety Podcast with your host me Valerie Moss and today is our 1st Birthday Episode 47, yes Valerie’s Variety Podcast just turned one. This episode will reflect back on this last year and what we’ve been through together and some of our favourites. Enjoy the episode.

Why a Podcast?

When I decided to start a podcast I needed an outlet, I’m always on the go and require purposeful stimulation in my life constantly. If you ask my husband he’d say his ‘busy wife’. If I’m not sorting through and straightening up my closet or Londons I’m planning a dinner party or planning a night out with friends. I quilt, I sew, I scrapbook, clean, take care of myself… etc.. I like to be engaged and living a life of purpose. With my job as a project manager I’m in a world of change my corporate life is also full of pivots and turns – which matches my personality greatly.

Where was I before?

Previously, I ran a quilting business out of my home, I blogged as a career and had quite an extensive following but when I sold my business and moved back into the corporate world my blogging dwindled as it was quilting focussed and I no longer fed this online blog. Fast forward several years, I’m a mom now of a 7 year old daughter London, I’m back in the corporate world and still looking for a platform to influence and share my life experience. I chose podcasting. Learning how to talk into a microphone, then edit what I said and edit what I said – add loops and details was all part of the fun. And did you know the older you get you need to continuously learn to stimulate your brain so it stays strong – this was also a deliberate strategy.

Try something new today and see how much it helps you – plus you’ll have a stronger purpose. My Soki (Karate Leader) once said, you have to work that pose longer and it’s really hard BUT you’ll be stronger for it. You have to work hard at something until it’s easy – this resonated with me.

Valerie’s Variety Podcast – the Name!

When I came up with the name I knew I wanted it to be a ‘variety’ show but I wasn’t sure of what to call it. Almost every-time I say Valerie’s Variety Podcast I hear a kazoo in the background and can almost see a circus act. There’s a few pods out there with the word variety in the name so I know I’m not alone in the idea of a random show, a show that’s non specific not just one genre or subject matter that gets discussed each and every week.

Then I got show music produced and written by Jason Schell for my show – I was humbled and honoured and I love it TASCAM 40! This name TASCAM 40 I chose for it because Jason didn’t give it a name lol TASCAM is the type of recording device he used and this was his 40th production within it – so TASCAM 40 it is!

In Episode 3 , Haunted Dean House I told the story about where we got married at the Deane House in Historic Fort Calgary. I love sharing my personal stories with you and providing background. This Deane House holds a special spot in my life, it is haunted, someone was murdered!

Episode 5 , Intruder in Mount Pleasant was a difficult episode to talk about, we were robbed and came upon him in our garage – this was a horrible experience and unfortunately one I won’t soon forget. London every once in a while discuss’ the Robber and even recently had a dream of a robber breaking into our home and shooting us with poisonous darts…Yes this is still very real to us. They never caught him…

Some of my favourite episodes were the interview ones, there will be more on the horizon. Is there anyone you’d like me to interview? Someone’s wife or husband – someone’s daughter or son? Maybe an old Boss that was your favourite? Wouldn’t this be fun to send me, Valerie Moss to go interview someone and get the ‘story’ that you’ve been wanting to know for many years?

As a side note: There’s an app called “Somebody” app that people can put a request into and some random stranger will deliver the message for you – in person. Pretty neat hey? It goes like this…so you want to tell a special someone that you love them, they live in another city, you live here – instead of sending flowers or a text or a call, you get the “somebody” app to find this person and deliver the news to them – a random stranger, would you do this?

I digress, back to my interviews, with my step sister Janice in Episode 6, Broadcasting for Corrections, my Dad Michael in Episode 8 Expatriate in Qatar, Born in Calgary, my soon to be step brother in law Darrin in Episode 7, Interview with a Warden, Jen owner of Thrifty Princess Consignment store in Episode 13 and Jason Schnell my music man – these were by far the most fun, I was relatively new at podcasting and producing this was fun for me and the guests were great! Also being interviewed and auditioning for a couple of shows gave me a different perspective. Favourite line from one of my guests? ” I would like to sit and talk to Jesus…”

All the episodes I’ve done reviewing a restaurant or two or many, this will be a staple on this show moving forward as I love to dine in a good place with good people – enjoying the ambiance, music and company plus when the food is great – you can bet an episode will blossom from it. I still love the story of humanity in Episode 26 Review: Ten, 5 & Humanity that I witnessed at the second cup on 17 avenue SW – the workers were kind to the sleeping man with his orange rock.

Episode 12, Q & A Between Mom and 6yo will be a good keeper for a long time, sharing this moment with my daughter – question and answer style. If you want your child to be on the show and have questions you’d like to ask or have me ask I’d love to – what a keepsake. Interview kids is very fun, takes us back to having a good imagination not a made up one. Best part of this episode is ‘plactic cheese’.

When I got into investigating Calgary, I found a couple of articles from the 1970’s that piqued my curiosity. Why the 70’s because I was born in the 70’s so I thought this would be a good place to start. These two stories hook-line-sinker – I was interested.

The first one being about two missing girls – still not solved almost 40 years later . Interestingly, this is by far the most popular show by hundreds of downloads that I produced. I almost think the people who tuned in to listen, read and review this episode and show notes just might know something. Why so much interest around this case. Obviously because it’s still COLD and obviously the people listening want to know more, maybe I find the person and assist in solving this case. We will see…this story isn’t finished yet. Need a refresh Episode 18, Calgary Cold Case 1976 Patsy McQueen & Ava Dvorak.

The Rookie cop who was killed too soon on the job, The Shelever case in Episode 24, Calgary History: William (Bill) Shelever 1977 I wanted to tell this narrative a bit different so I reached out the podcasting community and asked for some voice work for all of the people who were part of the story – this turned out to be my second most popular episode. Under the circumstances of the story, it’s nice to push the details of the story out there to ensure people remember this amazing man Mr. Shelever and how important the Calgary Police Service is in our lives and our city.

Two Minute Tuesday segments were an evolution of not being able to dedicate the amount of time for journaling and production – but instead of not producing an episode, I just produced a short episode, these are random topics about Calgary. I hope you leave with an impression you didn’t have before.

Mental Health Podcast Challenge – winner! I am a big believer in we all have a story and who we are today is because of this story we have lived and continue to go through. This history defines us and builds our character. We have good and bad times in our life – we all process and appreciate things differently. How we systemize these moments in our lives creates our persona. When we look in the mirror we want what’s best – like most people. Sometimes we require help from our peers, colleagues, friends, family and possibly professionals like doctors to steer us in the right direction or back on track. If we allow life to eat us up it will. Lean on someone when you need help – we all need help and most of us are helpful people!

I’m working on a few things to better Valerie’s Variety Podcast and one is a designated studio space. My space is on the main floor where we live, it works great for journalling, sewing, quilting, scrapbooking but for voice work and editing it’s not conducive. My husband (the idea man) puts ideas in my mind and then I run with it – it starts to consume me and the project ensues. Planning my new space which started with a possible shipping container getting delivered into my back yard…this is very pricey albeit an excellent idea I think this needs to be back burnered for now.

I’m designing my spare bedroom, looking into acoustic panels, graffiti art, maybe a new desk or reconditioned table, lighting, new headphones (through a mass drop idea) and more… so I’ll keep you posted on this new development in the Valerie’s Variety Podcast world.

I’m working on a tagline for my show, most amazing shows have tagline so I’m pondering a few, do you like WhatEVER WHENever? ValERies VAR-I-et-Y and others. Since you’ve been listening to my show….do you have a tagline word suggestion that you think will suite me?

…a weekly show about my life in Calgary, reVIEWs and interVIEWs my daily VIEWS

Some upcoming topics will be:

Valerie Segments: Who are these ladies and why is there so few of us…or is there?
Baby Blues Series:Where I’m stripping down being a new mom, reading from my journal…full disclosure.
More two Minutes Tuesday: Bringing Calgary Closer
Investigating Calgary...most notably the two girls Ava and Patsy…what happened to you two?
ReViews: Have a place, person or thing you want me to review…reach out to me
InterViews: Ready to meet some new people?
DailyViews: my daily musings

Thanks for hanging with me on Tuesdays it means a lot! Valerie’s Variety Podcast continues to push me to develop myself and these stories – adding the experiential backgrounds brings more story to you – this to will continue.

Looking for feedback if you have something to share with me please let me know valerie@valeriemoss.ca

April 9, 2019April 2, 2019

Mental Health Podcast Challenge – Accepted!

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Welcome back to another episode of Valerie’s Variety Podcast, this is a follow up to a previous show, episode 35 Mental Health Podcast Challenge where I told an intimate story about how we all suffer from Mental Health at one time or another in our lives. For those of you who are new to my show, I thought I’d share this episode again, plus it’s a good reminder to be a little extra patient, call a friend that you haven’t heard from for sometime be a little better of a person.

The person who put the request out back in January is an acquaintance in my Calgary Podcasting community, his name is River – great name hey? He lost his sister to suicide recently and since this change of life moment he’s been a huge advocate of mental health in our community (and abroad I’m sure).

Insert episode here…What did you think of this? Mental Heath Podcast Challenge – Accepted! They chose me and I received a little kit by a local company called Stresscase (great name hey) containing all sorts of lovely items:

Golden Milk: It’s a powder you mix with your favourite “milk” coconut oil, MCT oils, or butter, heat and simmer…ingredients are Tumeric, Ginger, Pepper & Cinnamon – I have’t tried this yet but it’s supposed to reduce inflammation, support brain and joint health and calm digest issues…oh it’s a deep mustard colour – stunning
Loving Bath Bomb: self explanatory however, it’s a flat disc style about the size of a hockey puck!
Rose Quartz Meditation Crystals: to reduce anxiety with a little note of step by step instructions about how to calm your mind. These little gems are soft sided, when they touch each other it’s a beautiful ‘tap’ sound
Barefoot venus, Gingerly Green Tea Cleanser: packed with skin loving extracts of White Pine Bark, green Tea, Ginseng, Bearberry and Licorice.

Thank you StressCase for this lovely kit. Plus it was hand delivered to my home! Check out the StressCase Story – it’s so amazing, a Mother-Daughter Team came up with this. Check out my blog for all of the pictures of my goodies. Thank you to River and his team for choosing my blog/podcast amongst the entries. I had to reflect on this challenge but having a voice and platform to share my story, will hopefully encourage you to share yours. To me, a stranger, to your friend, to your colleague, if you need to share your story and get it off your chest, do that- it’s healing. You know what else is a great outlet, write your future self a letter. I used this method/outlet a lot growing up to get my feeling off my mind and stored securely in my journal…when I had my daughter I used journalling as my psychologist…except I did the writing with pen.

Talk to you next Tuesday

April 2, 2019April 2, 2019

TmTs: Thank you, Valerie

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Episode 45

Welcome back to another TmT episode of Valerie’s Variety Podcast, if you haven’t listened to last weeks episode this is a follow-up.

London and I spent a day at Colour Me Mine in Kensington, I did this post and shared our experience because we had a really great time. We love going there and it was an honest ReView of this incredible experience. Barring the ‘rude’ lady, that decided to air her feelings about kids in a room full of kids united with their families. This place didn’t disappoint, we had a great time and have a cherished piece of hand painted pottery to mark our day!

I shared our experience through their online contact form and JJ the owner of this particular Colour Me Mine location. The response was so great I could barely read it without tearing up. As you know I like to spread positive experiences…if you’ve been pondering to go here with your bestie – here’s the environment and the owners goal for this place:

Hello Valerie,Wow, that’s so sweet of you! I loved it! You brought a tear to my eye, it truly makes what we do so worth it when we hear back from the very people we do it for and it truly touched my heart. I love what I do, never feel like I’m working really! Most favourite parts are the kiln reveals and seeing smiles while painting and of course at pick up! I’m so happy you enjoy your experiences. Thank you, thank you, thank you for sharing the good vibes. We aim to please and are happy to do so! Our customers are amazing and we are happy to provide a creative outlet to allow imaginations to sore. I’m disappointed about the comments of the pick up client (especially being a mother to 3 myself) (I had no idea that was said) however we never truly know the experiences of others and what would have caused her to say such things. I apologize on her behalf and hope you only feel/hear positive energy when at Color Me Mine.I would like to personally meet you hopefully someday soon and thank you in person,Look forward to seeing you soon,Take care and much gratitude! <3Best,JJ

Talk to you next Tuesday!

March 26, 2019March 23, 2019

Colour Me Mine

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Family Day Monday

episode 44

London and I on Family Day spent the day together painting art at Colour Me Mine in Kensington. This isn’t the first time we’ve done this adventure and it won’t be the last time. She picked out a cup to paint and I eventually insert4:17 here picked a vase for my plant area in my studio. insert 38:38 be careful you don’t break anything.

As you can here there’s lovlie jazz music in the background. We haven’t been here for a number of months – maybe even a year or more and this place has been enhanced. It being Family day…there was so many people in, all of the tables were full. They were having a celebration in the party room area at the back.

If you’re not familiar with this place – think creative. You can choose and items off the shelf like, plates, platters, bowls, ornaments, mugs, cups, tea cups, decorations like a little dog ornament or a giant dragon to paint. On the bottom of your object there’s a price on a sticker This amount includes all of the things you will require to get your painting – crafting object completed. These things include paint, brushes, water, designs, examples, a bit of a lesson, plus the kiln for the end. One stop shop. This particular location…is my favourite I’ve been to a few thoroughout the city but this one is the best one. as the two of us sit there with our treasures that likely add up to $80 for the two pieces, yes it isn’t cheap but you have a keepsake at the end that you’ve painted and love – you picked that pink, you wrote that love note, it was by you.

We pick our colours and find some paint brushes – some of them can be well used, get some water for ringing and dilution…a sponge for dabbing or maybe even sponge painting. and these small sample sw=queeze containers that you can use to freehand draw on your masterpiece. they have all kinds of goodies to use, stencils, sponges, crackle paint, pencils, examples…

insert 37:57 here

Flashback

As a side story we came here one time with our friends from our previous life over at KidsU, her name is Penny and her twin boys are Aidan and Noah. They adored London and called her Lundi – so cute!. Anyway, when we were their painting London was likely 4 or maybe 5 but I don’t think she was that old. Aidan and London went to the washroom to wash their hands…they locked the door and couldn’t get it opened. Aidan was freaking out and so was London, we had to get a pen, take the inside part out and push it though the lock to release the door knob – remember doing this when we were kids? What a memory to keep.

London painted a cut with a small raised plaque area and she decided immediately to paint a camera area within this small spot. Jeff gave her the idea to paint a cup or a glass for his bathroom sink. This place was full. insert 9:30.

London and I just sat and played painted while Jeff had to work…insert 9:55 here and enjoying our work insert 27:12 here. Some people we playing with glass fusion it’s a technique where you take glass pieces and put a special epoxy onto the background piece and fuse square/shapes in and on different colours. I haven’t tried it but it looks so interesting, and possibly like you might get a cut by the end of the day.

insert 42: I love that about you

When you sit and look around there’s a whole room full of people who are doing the same thing, using the same brushes, having as much fun with all sorts of different ideas in their minds. picking paint colours and trying to remember. insert 27: here the paint colour that you’ve chosen. insert note here about colour: 1:02:43 – 1:05…choosing colour background can you grab me one more…insert 1:07

Insert note here 33:57 – 36:44 – hear that chime that was the rude lady leaving.

As you can hear all the families sitting around us..This younger women came into this place picking up items for someone, she made an announcement like ” if I wanted to be around kids I would have had kids of my own”… with all of us families sitting around in this place, she openly comments about this – on Family Day?

insert 40:53 here for the convo between us- this totally sat with us and the other table with the mom, dad and kids beside each other united as a family. and again at 47:30 – 47:50yes this impacted us and London couldn’t wait to tell her dad

The atmosphere feels good in there, you can almost feel palpable creative energy all around us…and then this women comes in. What makes a person speak out like this? Why would she feel so much resentment to feel proud to make this sort of derogatory announcement? I reflect on this moment now as I write this and feel bad for her. I feel sad for her having this type of outlook. She was someone kid once – was her previous life as a child not one to want to remember?

insert door chimes at 22:20

There’s were families all around us, all kinds of nationalities, enjoying each others company. Older children like 16 or more and younger kids like 4 years old…they have a coffee bar and donuts insert donut note here 1:06:04 and good music playing, plus a piano 1:07:57

Sitting and painting in quiet just with our thoughts and sharing them as they come to mind, but all the while enjoying each others company and thoughts about our works of art. our masterpieces. insert 1:25:26 to 1:25:31…

From Google Reviews

Here’s some of the reviews on google I wanted to share about this experience just to validate my feeling more:

insert 40:27 friendly to 40:41 the lady working in the store is even commenting on the people and how they’ve grown over the last year

From a month ago: It’s honestly so much fun. So many different types of things to paint and enough paints to be totally free to get as creative as you want.
The gentleman working was so friendly and helpful and just a great energy to have around.
Love that they’re trying to focus on being more environmentally conscious too.

insert note: 41:25 here From a month ago: Color Me Mine is such a great family-run business. The staff are very helpful and the owner went out of his way to find the pottery I wanted to paint. They play smooth jazz, which is totally relaxing, and serve a great range of teas, coffees, soft drinks and snacks. It is open late at night, which makes it ideal for an alternative meet-up with friends to a bar or movie theatre. The pottery appears expensive but the price includes the paint and firing in the kiln (I believe some other similar businesses charge an entry fee). Your item is usually ready for pick up after five days. It has a friendly atmosphere and you don’t feel rushed at all. I would recommend. A great experience all-in!

From about a month ago: I love this colour me mine. I have been to a few in the city and had a great experience at all but this is my favourite one. JJ is the kindest lady I have ever met and so enjoy being in her studio! The way she is kids it’s so amazing! I go here about twice month and always leave feeling refreshed and relaxed!

From about a month ago: Color me mine Kensington is the best experience for painting ceramics. It has a very nice ambience and atmosphere. And the workers who own it are very kind and ready to help any customer.

From about 3 months ago: We had just the best time here today. The staff is very nice and very helpful. My daughter is absolutely obsessed now and we will be planning her bday party here! I highly recommend it!

Background was recorded by me, sorry about the undertone of singing…London enjoys her idea of a donut, the donut wasn’t that good…in the end after all this waiting, I like to still and finish this spot and that, trying to get every last line painted and crease taken care of. I always like to initial my piece on the bottom with a date – I encourage London to do this also as it just makes the moment all that more captured..

So, I want to encourage you to go out one day with your kids in tow or a friend and just enjoy the day away being in bliss with each other…this place warms the creative sole. I’ve done this with many friends…some no longer around anymore (RIP my dear friend Christi) and others who want to go back because it left a lasting impression on them.

insert 1:38 here what would you choose……be prepared to spend a good chunk of time, like a couple of hours you can bring a snack, coffee or tea if you want and I think they are also licensed so a glass of wine – but double check this. If you want some company invite me I’d go with you…

insert 1:48 here

I can be done, and be sad the day is over I say, well, it’s a nice time, we have a piece of cherished pottery painted by my daughter and me with good spirits and energy added to the mix..so yes I’d say we are artists!

Thanks for listening to this show today, means a lot to share these moments with you

See you next Tuesday.

March 19, 2019March 6, 2019

Vets To Go Review

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Welcome back to another episode (vvp43) of Valerie’s Variety Podcast and this week we are discussing a recent experience we had with Vets To Go.

Lately we’ve been struggling with our furry friend in the house. Our 17 year old cat Tig is going through some life changes. I had googled aging signs in cats as I’ve definitely seen her showing some signs of aging like: moving more slowly, eating less hard food, I’ve inteofuced some wet food, sleeping a bit more than usual. Also not hearing and seeing as well. She’s always been very affectionate purring likes to sit on my lap – she’s my cat for sure. Google noted a few things like eating less, showing signs of weight loss and honestly she has started to feel a little bit bonier lately.

My husband had suggested that maybe it’s time for a vet visit. It’s been a few years since I took her to the vet well maybe like 5 years. So yes it is indeed Time.

Some of the signs that we were up against are:

– howling in the night take a listen to this

– missing her litter box

– peeing on the carpet

– vomiting a bit more than usual

Hae you struggled with your cat and some of these issues. What have you done that has worked?

On our daily commute we drive by a Vets to Go business so I thought I’d give them a try. We were driving out to the mountains while having this discussion about going to a vet and I thought about this option. I went into their website and filled in the forms- scheduled a visit right from my car! How easy was this? I also read a few reviews on this company and you know mostly it’s about home euthanasia putting your pet to sleep in the comfort of their home- BUT they do all sorts of vet service – mobile. Great concept hey?

This most welcoming Vet showed up At my home on time and with such a great attitude. Really put me at ease and no ‘white coat syndrome’ off the start anyway. She proceeded to talk me through the process and how this works at home. She asked me for some background details. Take a listen.

We set up right in my kitchen on the island. The Vet Ask me to lay a towel out. And find the cat.

Then I couldn’t find Tig! I went looking for her all over 11:09 upstairs downstairs I checked under the beds oh man! Shaking her treat dish calling her name where the heck was she?? I finally find her

The Vet proceeded to check her out and snuggle her up. I think Tig lost like 14 handfuls of fur while she was there.

“Did you know you’re so pretty she says to Tig”

She puts Tig into this grocery style of bin. You know like from Safeway hard sided bin that collapses with handles. It’s attached to a scale. Tig gets in here and we weigh her as a team!

She jumps out. Like any female didn’t want to see the weigh in results!!

Good explanation for the yowling hey? She wants to look at our litter boxes.Ugh I wasn’t expecting this but here goes nothing! For her age she’s looking pretty good! That made me feel like I’m doing the right things

As a follow up to this CBD option, we’ve started using this since we had the Vet visit and we haven’t noticed any change in howling…but maybe it’s making Tig more comfortable and not so arthritic.

Can you hear my voice start to quiver…yep I’m that pet owner, nervous for the bad the news…

Character of the Vet

She good at changing the topic and making me feel at ease hey? What a nice person, so we proceed to setup and take blood from Tig who by the way became very feisty. But in the end is all worked out. And true to what the Vet said, Tig did stay around afteward and hang out with us – strange , she didn’t bolt up the stairs to hide. She stayed and was part of the remainder time. That’s all for my recording with the vet, I did bleep out her name to save her privacy as I didn’t ask her permission for this recording. However, I think if this is any indication of the kind of person she is – it bodes well to the type of people Vets to go hires.

I had a wonderful experience with this service and do recommend it to anyone that requires vet service. The cost was $450 for the visit, the exam and the blood collection and diagnosis. That’s what I would have likely spent in an actual Veterinary office but without dragging Tig through the stress.

Thanks for listening to this show today. and being part of my vet visit, it was a stressful time for both pet owner and pet. However doing it in my home with this most amazing vet made this a great experience, under the circumstances. Unfortunately, the yowling hasn’t stopped even with the introduction of the CBD oil. I have started to feed her later in the evening before I head to bed. The litter situation is interesting tho. Since we met with the Vet she suggested to open up the dome litter box so she can posture better in there based on her age this might be a little more difficult. We did this and then Tig never used her litter upstairs again, not once. Then she started peeing more downstairs UGH!. It’s been truly a trying time going through different options to figuring this out. So we picked up a new litter bin, and litter at the pet store – with their help on suggestions. And moved the litter into a new place in the house and she’s using it!!! Finally, not going downstairs at all, just using this one litter box and no accidents for the last several weeks. Her yowling in the middle of the night starting around 4am hasn’t stopped yet.

The background voice notes were recorded by me, Valerie Moss, the GarageBand loops I chose today are:

Cats Meow 01/02/03/04/05
Electro Beep Accent 01

The show is written and produced by me. See you next Tuesday.

March 12, 2019March 6, 2019

Housekeeping Promo

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Hi Everyone, welcome back to Valerie’s Variety Podcast this week is Housekeeping episode (vvp42). First I want to say thank you for taking the time to choose this podcast and hanging out with me on Tuesdays. This drives me to continue to produce podcasts every week. I’ve surpassed 40 episodes (some still scheduled to be released) and already building the content for my birthday episode.

So can I ask a favour of you?

Could you take one minute and pause this podcast and select a review on your podcast app or iTunes…I’ll wait, go ahead lol. I know all of the podcasters ask this us of listeners, me included. It’s means more now than ever to write a review. For me, if I don’t get feedback I never know if I’m doing a good job or not – I see my download numbers but who are these people anyway? I recently took my own advice and posted a very positive review on google and shared it with the person that did this great job! Guess what? I made her day as she knows she did a good job that made my day. Win Win, right? See how valuable this kind of easy thing is?

Also, would you mind to share this episode with one of your friends? When you look at the podcast through your smartphone’s app select the 3 little dots/icon, this will bring up some options and one of them is share…please share THIS episode with just one of your friends – just one. Your sister, your Auntie, your cousin…you get the idea.

I’m including a promo clip from our first 1-12 episodes. For those of you who are new check this out, for those of you who’ve been with me from the beginning – thank you and check out this recap. If you’ve been with me from the beginning what’s your favourite epidsode?

If you want to text me your comments I’ll read them on a future episode, or give me some feedback I’d love to hear from you – did you know you can text me to my email, valerie@valeriemoss.ca. This show in still an organic podcast a variety show that is based on whatever – whenever. Where I share reviews, news, history, personal stories. Are you’re enjoying this flow and randomness at the same time.

My favourite parts listening to this clip are…plactic cheese – hiding something on their person. Love hearing these different voices I go back to this place where I was at the time of these

Thanks for listening, the intro and outro for this podcast is recorded by London Moss, the intro for the promo clip is recorded by Janice Wilby. Theme music is produced and written by Jason Schnell titled Tascam 40.

March 5, 2019February 10, 2019

Banff Mountain GetaWay – vvp41

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Welcome back to Valerie’s Variety Podcast About recent getaway to the mountains. One of my most favourite things is being outside when the weather is cold and brisk but the sun is lighting up the day. With barely a cloud in the sky and it’s so cold and crisp under your feet.

Lake Louise

First stop – Lake Louise, 2 hours north west of Calgary nice drive into the park. Once you pass Canmore of brown lands we were becoming suspicious to the rumours about the snow, but as soon as we passed the park gates Snow Snow Snow

Check out my site for some videos of our drive the day was amazing to travel the abundance of snow hanging on the fence stumps looking like mushroom tops was incredible – this is snow. Also the Chinook arch was beaming with delight. A site to see if you’re not from around here our Chinook arches are a staple here in the mountains swinging our temperatures from minus 10 to plus 10 over night. Feels like spring when we’re in our coldest season.

Listening to the people enjoying the snow, skating on the majestic Emerald Lake, hiking, The mountains are encapsulating us from every direction. the sound, is solid. The 80 cms of snow or 31 inches absorbs the sounds. It’s really quite amazing, if you stop to listen when it snows it’s almost silent.

Me with my family, we enjoyed the scenery capturing a few memories, smiling at all the tourists, people skiing, kids digging into the snow, jumping. Dogs loving it up. Being with like minded people who appreciate a good picture in the freshest air.

Aren’t cameras fun…seeing all the people capturing this moment with loved ones, clicking their cameras big and small to get this moment, to savour this moment just like us.

You know what’s amazing to me is people from all over the world are enjoying the same place as me – in my country, my backyard…I don’t know what they are saying but you can just imagine…this are is beautiful, take a picture of me over here…

From Ice Castles that you can stand in and have a drink in complete with bartender, take pictures peeking out through the windows – yes inside the ice castle. Surrounded by the most in credible 6 mountains. When you stand outside the hotel and looking from left to right the mountains are:

Fairview Mountain

Aberdeen (which kind of hides behind Fairview)

Lefroy

Victoria (the big one in the centre)

Whyte (with Mount Niblock connected to its right)

St. Piran

We walked all around this amazing place. Nestled within these mountains, this chateau and can’t you hear is so quiet with people just taking it all in around us. Taking family pictures. Savouring this experience.

What time is it? I don’t know I say…when I’m on vacation or holidays or away from my busy life I like to loose track of time…this helps me unwind and be in the moment, whenever and whatever I’m doing.

Dig out your boots, your snow pants, favourite warm mitts and toque head to the mountains, get that fresh air on you and in you. This my friends, heal souls and refreshes minds to undertake your next challenge. This is my happy place. What’s your happy place? Why how does it make you feel is it a thing, a song, a person share this with me.

Banff Park Lodge

Next Stop ….checking into the Hotel, we’ve always wanted to Stay at the Banff Park Lodge located on Lynx Street between Wolf Street and Caribou Street – see the theme here? It’s boasting many flags on the outside of the building. True to Banff’s style it’s rock and wood and feels good inside – at the time we were there it was still decorated like Christmas – the trees were as tall as the ceilings over 20′ – stunningly decorated . Although we booked our room online. Here’s our checking in experience.

Like all checkins you need to park your car and mosey up to the reception desk to check in…our gal was lovely….hair dryer to room..so funny.

Parking is underground, in a warm basement, daily parking is advisable, this was your car is safe.. why can’t we remember our licence plate lol…she would run out in the cold to get this detail – thank you lady!

insert here…isn’t that nice how she’s engaging to London, asking her questions, check out her accent, there’s a lot of Auzzie’s in Banff – why – likely because it feels like home 🙂

Thank you…this was we can sleep in then head to brunch yummy!

So Jeff comes back in from getting his licence plate and wants to ask about late check out – this is when you’ve been together as long as we have – on the same page…

hair dryer is cancelled

We were checking in earlier then typical time, but there wasn’t any other rooms available at this time for ready rooms…while Jeff and London were upstairs checking into the brunch and walking around… checking in is always a process…but it was a pleasant experience and they were very kind and accommodating for our requests and questions.

insert voice note – marking reservations…3 people at 12:30 – we are booked for brunch!

After we finished getting checked in, we got nestled into our hotel room, it was a standard room with two queen beds, nice balcony view, clean, small bar to put all of our medleys in to keep chilled on the one side with fridge, a good bathroom that’s been upgraded with finer fixtures. It’s roomy and clean. We freshen up and head out to explore the hotel. Find the pool and the dining area along with the bar that’s has a few patrons mingling and having food and drinks. It’s cozy and welcoming…a waiter greets us.

La Terrazza Dining Room

LaTerrazza dining room, is located within an atrium, still decorated cozily and quaintly for Christmas with small lights and evergreen bows. Located behind the bar off to the side, it’s quiet and intimate. We picked our table. Made our reservation enjoyed an appetizer and a glass of wine. We had the nachos.

The room was very inviting and after enjoying the nachos we wanted to stay and laiase the day away. The nachos were okay and definitely hit the spot but they weren’t the best nachos I have ever had…

We proceeded to go for a walk around Banff, it’s was snowing like crazy which is exactly what we were wishing for. being in the snow…it was also a bit cold but hey it’s the mountains in wintertime, this is what we expected and why people come here.

After the pool we got ready to go to dinner, as you heard we made reservations at La Terraza dining room, the menu sounded great and the ambiance was very fitting. Jeff enjoyed the lobster fettuccini and I tried their special ‘big fish’ served on rice with veggies. It was amazing – London just ate off our plates. I just love that she’s adventurous with food – are you kids, would they eat Lobster and a large flat fish with head and eyes still intact?

Crave Mountain Grill

The next morning we enjoyed brunch in their Crave restaurant Located upstairs with large windows to overlook the Banff mountains and areas.This brunch has been nominated for the ‘best brunch in Banff’ award a few times and this occasion didn’t disappoint. Our waitress was an auzzie and you could tell she loved her job.

Checking in for brunch beginning of voice note.

While we were waiting for our waitress a man came moseying into the restaurant, all the waiters and waitresses said hi to him, he was known to them and familiar. He seems pleasant enough making his way through the restaurant with his walker to assist him. A tall man with grey showing on his face and top of his head – once he removed his toque. Scooching through the tables gingerly placing his walker to not bump into anything. Once he got situated they bought him coffee etc.

Later I met him up at the buffet together, he asked me if I was enjoying Banff and I said yes I returned the question and he said yes for 60 years and the mountains were bigger back then…a local I suspected. Born and raised in Banff – how lucky!

As we enjoyed our brunch with all the fun trimmings of fish, meat, pastry bar, chocolate with fruit fountain and all kinds of salads and warm food time planned the rest of our day we were visiting with our waitress and she was so outgoing and a perfect match to our fine brunch establishment. Cheery and pleasant, good service too. New zealand north island…such a doll how friendly is she? She’s been here for 9 years. Don’t you just love listening to another accent makes it even more gregarious and connects you further to the people around you – you always learn something. Looking out the window was so beautiful, so much snow and the sun making it shimmer it was stunning.

Thanks for listening into our weekend getAway in the mountains, I wanted to share this experience with you as I mentioned earlier the mountains and the cold heals me. This is my place where I get rejuvenated. The sound of the snow, the being beside like-minded people, enjoying the quiet company of my family and being lucky enough to have this experience in my back yard.

If you’re from Calgary you likely ski or snowboard or trek up the mountains hiking. For me the mountains are a peaceful place. Listening to London enjoy the snow and Jeff snapping pictures of us and the environment is where we find our bliss moment. As a side note, The brunch was excellent but a little pricey when you’re in Banff you’ll pay more for the experience and the atmosphere. We were surrounded in people on the ski hill and snowboarding throughout the days, people were giddy with the excitement of the snow, the most snow in over 10 years.

What’s your happy place or is it a person that you can snuggle up with? Find that place in your mind right now and just be there in that moment. I’ll wait….

Thanks for listening. If you have a favourite story to tell me about your happy place let me know…these feel good stories are the best ones to share with each other as it spreads happiness and a warm feeling inside.

The intro and outdo is by London Moss, the music I chose for todays episode is through GarageBand and my personal voice note recordings. I hope you like these voice notes and having a glimpse into our personal experience with the sounds and banter within my family and our GetAway. Some of the music and GarageBand loops I choose for todays episode are:

Future Fresh Topper
Wolf Howl 02
Counterpoint Synth
kids Cheering
Jumping in the Pool

February 26, 2019February 15, 2019

Activities for Kids and Parents – vvp40

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Extra Curricular Activities from golf, to swimming, to basketball, cycling, to bowling and photography…What’s your preference? This week on Valerie’s Vareiety Podcast we are talking sports and extra curricular actives for your kids and maybe even you! I’m your host Valerie Moss…Enjoy the episode.

What do you have your kids in for extra curricular activities? From gymnastics, to soccer, hockey, swimming, golf – what’s you or your kids activity preference and why?

Gymnastics

London’s quite a small girl and has always been so we thought gymnastics would be good to build up those core mussels and balance in the younger years. She was in gymnastics for about 4 years with back to back sessions. Not competitive but still skill driven and building endurance, balance and passion for the sport. We took her to Flip Factory just off 4 street NE. She went consecutively with her friend Sophie until recently as plans change people moved life adjusts. We noticed many benefits of Gymnastics, for one it provided her the agility and 2 strength that has benefited her with her other sports.

Gymnastics is a good basis for any sport as it gets you familiar with your muscles, posture and power. When you are small, these things matter even more.

Karate

In Valerie’s Variety Podcast Episode 5 we caught a robber in our garage – we came upon him and chased him down the back alley – it was un-nerving and scary. this lead to a renewed discussion about Karate for London. She’s so petit we wanted her to build confidence, strength and learn to defend herself. We purged forward in getting London into karate, subsequent burglar noted event!

This is the second activity she is in…she’s committed to it, still a white belt but moved up from ‘chops’ and is purging forward to get her yellow belt, And since I take her every week, instead of sitting and facebooking, working or listening to podcasts I’ve decided to join in on this amazing sport. Yes at my age and being a female I wanted to show by example and get into shape also. plus maybe learn a skill or two, and hopefully defend myself along the way – honestly I hope I never need to put this to the test. Plus I think it’s something good that we can do togehter, she’s pretty proud of this – we’ll see how it unfolds.

Where and how much $

This particular class on Thursday nights held in Mount Pleasant Community Rec Centre is ran by a husband and wife team. They are incredible and made me feel at ease making this decision. Part of the acku All Canadian Karate Union (http://www.acku.org) practicing the Traditional Skokotan Karate in Alberta and British Columbia. What’s nice about belonging to this club is you can train at any of the facilities and training clubs around the city – it’s part of your monthly fees. And at $55/person or $95/family of two or more that’s a pretty good rate for 2 classes per week or as many as you can fit into your shedule…

Do you or would you take any classes with your kids? There’s a parent in this karate class that has two kids involved in it as well. One thing is, when you’re in class with your children you are separated, and as a result you are not the parent during class time. The Sensai has control as the instructor. So that’s a nice break also. But I do like being in this class with London, she has 7 months of experience into this than I do so she feels very knowledgeable and shows me things – I love it!

One of my clients believes that team sports is the only way to go. You need to be a team in life you need to keep your ‘bench’ full he would say. Growing up I wasn’t into sports but I worked from a young age, therefore I proved to be a good team player. What about you? We have friends/family that live through their kids sports, hockey and soccer plus baseball and golf. To me, that’s just a bit too much for these small people, alternatively if it works for you, then great!

Swimming

We signed her up for swimming to continue her lessons and master this life skill. Swimming is a necessity of life and an important strength to have. We traded gymnastics for swimming. Swimming has been a success! She passed her Swimmer 1 with flying colours, now onto Swimmer 2. We attend the Killarney Swimming Pool on Saturdays mid morning and the class is approx. 45 mins, take a listen.

Why Swimming

Spending summers at the lake, vacationing in places with oceans and pools and travels to hotels with pools has pushed us to ensure London has the training and skills to be a good, safe swimmer with confidence. Do your kids swim? Are you a swimmer? As we sit in the pool viewers area and watch the adults take lessons, we thought wow good on them for pushing their limits and learning something new. Learning a new skill and showing your vulnerability is a lessen in modesty. I wish them all the luck and courage to get through this.

A lession in trust

As a side story, there was this little munchkin being brought to class by her momma, she was resisting major big time. Jeff and I sat in the viewers corner watching. This timid girl was running back to the entry into the change rooms, peeking out to her momma and shaking her head no-way am I going! She then would walk out to her momma and take the scene in again, pondering. The mom eventually handed the child to the teacher.

…the child was continuously resisting – yelling out,”momma I have to tell you something…” momma please I just need to tell you something…oh man it just tested the parenting reactions, I was almost in tears ready to hear what she needed to tell her momma – whatever it might have been. Her momma was just sitting up the bench from me…respecting the teacher reassurances with her daughter. The teacher kindly but firmly brought the child into the water – with full resistance but just the first couple of times, then the fear facing child was settled in and as a result took her lesson.

Try something new

I encourage you to try something new, if I can start Karate at 41 what could you start. A language class, an art class, or join your kids lesson.? I did my research for this decision by asking the Sensai to help me. As a result, she and her daughter started at the same age as we are, this solidified my decision. Anyway, good luck to you when you do decide to join a class and let me know what you decide.

In Closing

In closing, thanks for listening today on Sports and Extra curricular activities not just for our kids, but certainly, for us as well! Thank you, it sure means a lot that you’ve chosen this podcast as part of your favourites! I love that. Please take a second to rate me and tell a friend to spread the word.

The intro and outro is by London Moss, the music for this episode is Upbeat Hi-Hat Topper. I recorded the background loops of swimming and karate.

The sound effects I chose today are:

Golf Hit
Jumping in the pool
Basketball dribbling
bicycle coasting
Bowling strike
camera shutter
record player scratching
Arabic, Chinese, French, German and Spanish numbers

I wrote and produced this show plus design the cover art for this episode through Adobe Spark.

February 19, 2019January 20, 2019

Taxi! – vvp39

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Welcome back to another episode of Valerie’s Variety Podcast, V-Squared and a secretive recording of a taxi ride I took recently…hope you’re okay with a little eavesdropping. I’m usually quite chatty with my UBER or Taxi Drivers – insert annoyance here. BC doesn’t have UBERS – would you please get with the times!! Anyway, here’s a story about an interesting Taxi Driver – yes he’s from Pakistan, money conscious, doctors for parents, arranged marriage and more…

Take a listen…

His parents are both doctors – his home food is better than any food in a restaurant – don’t we agree with this? Village food is so natural and good – he even said queen elizabeth never has never been luck to have this food.

Huge family but he’s the only one here in Canada – he feels lonely. He’s a people person as you can tell he’s very friendly. Never liked firing people – always felt bad and didn’t like this part of the job wanted something more. He wanted freedom.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan

Pakistan is the 6th most populous country, along the Arabian Sea and Gulf of Oman, in the south it’s bordered by India and to the East, Afghanistan to the west and Iran to the southwest and of course China to the north

insert this at 269

Benazir Bhutto Benazir Bhutto (Sindhi: بينظير ڀُٽو‎; 21 June 1953 – 27 December 2007) was a Pakistani politician who served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1988 to 1990 and again from 1993 to 1996. She was the first woman to head a democratic government in a Muslim majority nation.

lady priministor in pakistan

Insert at 363

to travel from Pakistan to England for Higher Studies it’s an 11 hour plane ride, one would travel Start: Pakistan, fly over Turkmenistan, over Turkey, Over the Urkraine, over Poland and then land in England. From Pakistan to England

Insert at 393

Never allow him, I wonder what this would be like to be not allowed to practice medicine because your Grandfather said. If I was a doctor and not a overworked project manager – my grandfather would have said – get to practicing!

Insert at 404

Don’t pay? what a humble way to run a practice how kind is this man? A dental practice here in Canada and especially Calgary have some of the highest rates in dentistry, if you couldn’t pay you likely cannot go to the Dentist.

Insert 428

Don’t we all feel like this growing up? Compare this moment, and what he said to your life? We think our parents make money but why can we get all the things we want when we are kids. I know when I grew up with a single dad money was tight altho my dad worked two jobs and went back to school when we were just young kid – so he could earn more. Reflecting back now money can only go so far and needed to be put to bills and groceries first then the more fun things in life came after the priorities.

Insert at 438

doctors become brutal Raymond says, 60% of women in Pakistan have caesarean operation, doctors become brutal who give them that. Research shows this is a global problem or assistance depending on which way you look at it. Is much more common even in our country to be scheduled for a c-section, it’s planned, the date is provided, it’s on the doctors scheduled. a natural birth the date, time and doctor is out of our control.

Insert at 461

Not sure where he got this information but According to April of 2018 BC tops the country in caesarean birth – TOPS the country. He was leading me to believe that they were low, I know Calgary is on the rise from going through the birthing process myself having a natural birth and seeing my sister deliver her to babies – they pressured her to deliver by c-section in both cases and we had to to support and fight against it as both mother and child were not in distress – this was purely out of convenience to the doctor.

B.C. tops country in caesarean-section rates: federal report

https://www.cihi.ca/en/c-section-rates-continue-to-increase-while-birth-rates-decline

Interestingly giving birth remained the most common reason for hospitalization in Canada with 366,000 people giving birth in recent years, the next most common reason is pulmonary disease (heart problems). WOW we hear about our hospitals and emergency wards being inundated with people who are abusing the systems but really it’s the mom’s having babies.

Insert at 469

This is my perspective of BC – with adoration i feel like this is truly the way things are, growing up in the mountains in Jasper and travelling through BC on vacation we get a sense they are most connected with mother nature. Mid-wives and duals are becoming more common here and there. after educating myself more about these statistics we are relatively close in our birthing practices – in the end we want healthy babies and healthy moms.

Insert

to clarify, this is also the decision of some moms out there, they want this process to be set and organized, booked not and organic process.

Insert at 564

in 1947 13.5million people fled from one side of the British colony to the other side – a new border, millions didn’t survive and came to a violent end. The direction they took depended on their faith Hindus and Sikhs came together and separated from Muslims. This partition gave a new hope with a new nation, Pakistan.

https://www.cnn.com/2017/08/08/asia/india-pakistan-independence-timeline/index.html

Insert 612

Male Nurse, trade, upgrading their education, spending years to better their education and now they end up in Flin Flon practicing medicine. Laboratory technician in Flin Flon Manitoba only 5 muslim people living there – they are the smallest little muslin community in Manitoba.

Insert at 752

Find a partner? The pakistanies still have arranged marriages, semi-arranged marries to this day, they sometimes take a year or more to be established. And it’s between the families and not just the bride an dgroom, this starts at the age of 20. I met my husband when I was a waitress at a local golf course and he was having supper with one of my work mates. Arranged no, but 17 years later it was a good night, beef dip and all.

Insert 783

Yes you heard that right his wife stays at home and takes care of the kids for the last 10 years and has has 2 bachelor degrees 1 masters degree, 1 diploma. Umm what? She could be working here, have a nanny for her kids until they are old enough for private school and have a sense of empowerment here in Canada. Start student of the University.

Insert at 821

Hmm do you think she’s really happy at home – sounds a bit like she was a career student with this much education under her belt and being a star student at the university – now she’s home all the time taking care of her kids. This taxi driver sounds like he’s supportive of her going back to school and upgrading her education so she can if required work here in Canada.

Insert 861

isn’t this amazing that someone – a stranger saw something in this cab driver that he wanted to teach him how to drive taxi and find his way around the city – over the phone. Teach him how to deal with impatient caucasian men – this is a whole other schooling lesson in it’s self.

insert 872

this stranger gave him his number and made jokes about losing his fair due to training this stranger to him – isn’t this a nice story about paying it forward, one man changed another mans life? His very first day was really good on the job – 7 years later he has such a good disposition, very happy and content to be doing his job and how friendly is he?

I hope you enjoyed getting to know my Taxi driver Raymond. i always find this interesting getting to know someone in this short drive and how much they are willing to share with you and open up with you about their life. Im a big believer of being open to the world and the world will be open to you – it’s a serendipitous moment you will have. We are all connected. So the next time you jump into a taxi or an UBER get to know your driver and you’re world will be brighter for it.

Thanks for listening, do you have a taxi ride experience you’d like to share – please drop me a note/text or email to valerie@valeriemoss.ca as I’d love to hear your story.

The intro and outro for this podcast is recorded by London Moss, the voice recording is by me from the Vancouver Airport to my hotel inCoast Twassen Inn at Delta BC, the music I chose for this episode is through GarageBand

Indian Rajah Sitar 30
Indian Rajah Sarod 15
Crying London is recorded at London actual birth day

Thank you to:

cnn

Vancouver Sun

Google Maps

Wikipedia

February 12, 2019January 20, 2019

TmTs: Concrete at The Glenbow – vvp38

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Todays Two Minute Tuesday we are looking at Calgary Street Art. Welcome back to Valerie’s Variety Podcast, with your host me, Valerie Moss todays show is short and sweet. I’m calling these Two Minute Tuesdays or TMT’s. As I’ve been doing more and more research for my episodes and working full time, it doesn’t leave enough in the kitty to record and produce timely, so instead of releasing less often I’ve decided to do these short spurts in between the full episode segments. Let me know what you think. My focus as always will be Calgary, this great city, and all that’s captured within it.

Enjoy the episode.

http://www.avenuecalgary.com/City-Life/A-Brief-History-of-Calgary/

Did you know the concrete murals on the side of the Glenbow museum facade are by artist Robert Oldrich. These are made of cast cement. The thoughts behind these are reflective of our city, cowboy hat, oil derrick, and our infamous chinook arch. Robert came to our great city and mixed his sand and water creations for us to enjoy, more of his work is plastered on other buildings like: Bishop Grandin High School, the previous location of the Calgary Central Library and others. He immigrated to Calgary in 1951 from the Czech Republic he past away in 1983 in the USA leaving many pottery, printmaking, mosaics and sculptures behind for all of us to enjoy – thank you Robert.

Thanks for listing to our TmTs on the Vsqared podcast. the intro and outro for this podcast is recorded by London Moss and the music I chose today is true Heart Procussion…if there’s something about Calgary or someone in Calgary that you’d like to know more about send me a note text or email to Valerie@ValerieMoss.ca

Government of Canada

https://app.pch.gc.ca/application/aac-aic/artiste_detailler_bas-artist_detail_bas.app?rID=12320&fID=2&lang=en&qlang=en&pID=786&ps=50&sort=AM_ASC

Avenue Magazine

http://www.avenuecalgary.com/City-Life/Detours/Work-of-Art-Concrete-Murals-Untitled-by-Robert-Oldrich/