Posts

Posted on

Banff Mountain GetaWay – e41s1

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

episode 41 season 1

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
Posted on

Activities for Kids and Parents – e40s1

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

episode 40 season 1

Swim a length, perform your best KICK – feels good right?!

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.

Posted on

Taxi! – e39s1

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | Email | TuneIn | RSS | More

episode 39 season 1

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…

Taxi Cab Convo

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.

https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/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