Hey Everyone, it’s Valerie here, Todays show $14 Bottle of Rose in New York I have a special guest, Rod Lechalt, we originally met when I was working on an audiobook production/radio show called Project DF he was one of my casted characters, take a listen…
He was so good I casted him for another part
…take a listen
And then we followed each others socials and I discovered we have similar interests like food and drinks so, we got to talking and here’s our interview, think EAT – great good around the world, CREATE – great memories about travel and a good storyteller, oh and he’s from Calgary, Alberta also like me, enjoy the show! This show was originally recorded in May of 2020, there is some light swearing which I do not beep
One thing you’ll notice right away from Rod is his love to tell a quick snippet story here and there like this one..
As I mentioned at the top of the show this was originally aired in May of 2020 when covid was in full swing in our city…
Michelin stars is a rating that was first introduced in 1926….
Has this every happened to you – I’m sure it has…
More Corona virus chat…
I had not seen the video – I have however watched it – well part of it…
Rod and his wife posed nude …..
Sous Vide…
Why do they call it Hell’s kitchen
Le Pain Quotidien….oui oui
Wow what an interview, such a friendly guy hey? We had a great time, and since we originally recorded this episode in May there’s so much that has happened in the world and one of the major things for this episode is numerous places that Rod has visited on his food travels are no longer open or temporarily closed due to covid. So many great restaurants haven’t made it through this difficult time and with more and more people learning to cook at home this will likely continue.
One thing I have to confess is we each recorded our sides of the conversation on our own mic as well as over zoom…I however when it came to editing this show late in 2020 could not find my side of the recording…so the editing and processing was a bit of a feat with the online audio.
Until next time, I’m Valerie from Valerie’s Variety Podcast in Studio 17
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.
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
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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.
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
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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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
