food, glorious food..........

it's been one of those days today to hunker down & keep warm, a blizzard blowing all day has reduced the view from our house to little more than a white swirling fog

amazingly there are people out there still jogging & doing all the usual fitness freak stuff that goes on here in Canmore - i have noticed my fitness improve no end in the 4 months we have been here

playing soccer weekly at this altitude definitely helps & once you get into good food habits, the poor diet trap that is so easily fallen into at first can be avoided

there are some gems out here in terms of food & drink & in 4 months these are the best of the best so far

pizzas - The Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co - hands down, the best pizza we have eaten anywhere, even Italy itself

beer - The Grizzly Paw - nice centrally located bar, elevated beyond the ordinary by its range of fantastic home brewed beers

bread - Urban Baker in Calgary - I know my bread (it's my job after all) & this is a beautiful artisan baker, especially the Tuscan Bread - the best I have tasted anywhere in the world

meats - i don't really trust meat out here - the same principles of organic, drug free meat that thrive in the UK - seem to be ignored over here but Valbella Meats in Canmore produces a wide range of fine, continental charcuterie

coffee - Beamers Coffee Shop in Canmore produces excellent & highly addictive latte's amongst many other coffees

chocolate - Le Chocolatier in Canmore is a fine, artisan chocolate producer - using real Belgian chocolate to produce exquisite products

there is i'm afraid a lot of mediocre, additive filled junk food out here - but dig around a little & there is also some damn fine fayre too!

all fucked up on the booze & the drugs!

i've said it before & i'll say it again - The Broken Family Band are the best goddam band in the UK at the moment! i have just taken delivery of their new album Balls & it is chuffin' marvellous! there is not a weak track on there & they seriously rock live, if you don't stand there with a big grin on your face throughout the set, there is no hope!

Track 4 - "the booze & the drugs " is worth the price of the LP alone.

a trip to the grotto..........

i'm currently halfway through John Peel's semi-autobiography - Margrave of the Marshes - it's very sad because his contribution suddenly ends midway through the book, he's obvioulsy just died, & his wife's memories of him take over. a massive shame because JP must have had some incredible stories to tell.

he certainly had a big influence on me, i listened pretty regularly between say 1987 & 1992 - and then intermittenly afterwards - i even briefly met him once, when he was DJ-ing at Manchester University & he played a request for me - after i joined the queue of students asking him for the latest smash by The Flatmates, The Darling Buds, The Wedding Present or whoever was fashionable in the indie-schmindie world at the time

i think the last time i listened to him was one dark, stormy night as i drove through the wilds of Yorkshire - his voice the equivalent of a warm cup of cocoa but the music a mix of joyous African guitar bands, death metal & probably a modern day Flatmates type schmindie band in session

a genius & despite there being many great internet radio stations out there now - WFMU & KCRW to name but two, nobody comes close to the man.

it was finally a bit warmer today & the thermometer even broke through the freezing barrier this afternoon & climbed to +1C !! We went for a walk up to Grotto Canyon - which is basically a towering canyon with a frozen river (at this time of year) running through it, it was very picturesque but the frozen water was treacherous & at times we were emulating the Olympic speed skaters from the Olympics during our walk back down & out - not the most comfortable experience with a 25lb baby strapped to your back

it's about time i put some fresh tunes on the radio player - i have been listening a lot recently to No Roses by Shirley Collins - Collins was a Hastings born folk singer, who made a number of essential albums in the late 60's early 70's - she married one of the guys, Ashley Hutchings, who founded Fairport Convention.

No Roses is a much loved work of hers - the two tracks i have put up are quite different stylistically - the first track - The Murder of Maria Martin - telling the story of a ne'er do well condemned to hang upon a tree for murdering rather than marrying his girl - the song contains both an unintentional reference to a fairly famous British Soccer club & I guess the inspiration for the name of an excellent contemporary British folk group....

the second one - The Little Gypsy Girl - could be seen by the musically challenged (!) as rather corny in a fiddle-dee/morris dancer manner, but me & my 16 month old daughter absolutely love it & after a few listens I defy anyone not to hum it every now & again! The problem with folk music is that it is seen by many as at best, twee. I blame The Two Ronnies - who sent up the genre ad nauseum in the 70s. Yet this music is our heritage & while it is OK to love the traditional music from other nations (Celtic, Bluegrass, Cuban etc etc etc) - our musical heritage is frowned upon - however the stories told in these old songs are a direct insight into the long-forgotten lives of ordinary men & women from our fayre land. Open you ears...........

more medals for canmore.............

suddenly i am seeing coyotes everywhere i look, there was even one foolish mutt running down the grass strip that divides the traffic on the Trans Canada Highway this afternoon - he was a sure fire bet to end up as crow food I'm afraid - maybe it's a sign of spring, but these little dogs are everywhere

there was also a herd of elk faffing around on the highway yesterday morning just past Lac Des Arcs, whats gotten into the darn critters round here?

maybe it's the heavy snowfall we've been having - you can see the first real snow of the winter all over Canmore on the webcam - it's sure pretty but also makes driving a lottery - i was flashed by a red light camera in Canmore tonight, but only cos the car skidded about 15 metres & past the red light after i braked as the lights changed

just time as well to gloat over Canmore's new gold medallist Chandra Crawford, who won a gold in the Women's Cross Country Sprint on Tuesday - that makes it one gold & one silver from our little town's intrepid Olympians - i really am looking forward to the homecoming party/parade...........i was in Aviemore for the celebrations in 2002 when Scottish skier Alain Baxter came home with Britain's first ever alpine skiing medal, the poor bloke losing it shortly afterwards over some obscure doping controversy.

photos online.........

those of you that know me & know my surname can access photos of us in Canmore

simply visit this site & input my surname as a password - all in lower case

flying to V again.......

off on one of my regular jaunts to Vancouver tomorrow, looking forward to this trip in the summer when the weather is good - our friends have just started work on a second restaurant out there - in Kitsilano - promises to be a fun place when it's opened

everyone you meet seems keen to extoll the virtues of their home town - we've bee urged to go to Winnipeg & Montreal in recent days

are they telling the truth or will we end up in the Canadian equivalent of Milton Keynes? only time will tell..........

four days off............

well it' s the end of a much needed 4 day break, and back to work tomorrow with a couple of busy weeks involving trips to Vancouver, Edmonton & Manitoba

friday was a corker of a day, despite temperatures close to -30C which caused excruciating pain in my ungloved fingers while i secured my snowboard to the car's roofrack - a day up on the mountain at Lake Louise was better than expected - it was quiet, not a cloud in the sky & with about 16 layers of clothing on i didn't feel the cold at all

i also saw the stupidest thing i have ever seen in years of doing winter sports type stuff - on the men's world cup downhill piste, two dickhead snowboarders were sunbathing in the middle of the slope! Hidden by a dip they were invisible to anyone coming down the slope & as this was a double black diamond piste it was pretty much vertical - they were extremely lucky not to have their heads split in two by skiers/boarders hurtling down that slope - luckily i took a line slightly to the left of them or i would (a) have killed them & probably (b) killed myself - unbelievable

that night we had plans to go & see a couple of bands at the Canmore Hotel, but instead stayed on at our friends house party which was really rather nice - as usual everyone gathered in the kitchen & as we left it was just starting to get raucous

saturday i managed to beat my record for cross country skiing, doing two laps of the Banff trail in record time - i love this sport, it burns 600 calories per hour & is officially the most cardiovascular challenging sport there is - knackering but you can feel the flab burning off - i'm still rubbish though & haven't mastered skiing out of the tracks (i do the classic version where you stay in pre-cut tracks)

sunday involved a walk round town & then friends round for dinner - all very civilised & good to see our 15 month old daughter really interacting & playing with other kids - something i don't see much

and yet more walks today & lunch with more friends in the Drake Inn, which again was a civilised & child dominated affair - as it was a holiday, Alberta Family Day, it was pretty busy in town a foretaste of the summer, when Canmore heaves we are told

to top all this off, Charlton are in the FA Cup Quarter finals with a decent home draw against Middlesborough - ironic in that my dad was a life long Boro fan & my cousin still has a season ticket up there - shame i won't be at The Valley for the game, hopefully it will be a better affair than the capitulation to Bolton in our last Quarter Final a few years back

i will definitely come across for the Cup Final in May should we make it & should i get my hands on a ticket! let's wait & see...........

major obsession over here at present is the winter olympics & we are extremely proud of Canmore girl Sara Renner who won a silver, (thanks in large part to a kindly Norwegian coach who gave her a replacement ski-pole when hers snapped midway through the race), at the aforementioned Cross Country Skiing. We watch the, it has to be said, mind bogglingly extensive coverage in the evenings every now & again, but i find some sports pretty dull - especially bloody ice skating - if this "sport" is in the winter olympics, why the hell isn't ballroom dancing in the summer version - it's not a sport, in fact most sports which rely on judges awarding marks out of 10 for things like "artistic merit" are questionable in my book

no music today, i am gonna start getting into the habit of writing this blog more often - i have bought a shed load of new stuff & some of these tracks will be ending up on here

cougar alert!..........

This beautiful cougar, easily capable of killing a fully grown adult was photographed using a remotely triggered infra red camera - a few minutes from the Canmore Nordic Centre on Monday 30th January at 6.34pm. It's probably looking at me cross country ski-ing, as this was exactly what i was doing at the time - wildlife officials have warned the likes of me to exercise extreme caution in ski-ing at night with these creatures around!! This was splashed all over the front page of the Canmore Leader this week.

hot, hot, heat........

well considering it's still the first week of February & we should be rights be under 3 feet of snow & shivering at minus fifteen, it was with some bewilderment that i drove around Calgary today with the windows down & the a/c set to cold in the car such was the warmth of the day - whoever told us Canada was cold was having a larf!

i finally got the damn radio thing working, seems my previous web hosting site just decided to delete loads of accounts without telling anyone - nice!

so returning in style here are two live tracks from the wonderful Laura Cantrell - possessor of the purest, sweetest country voice you will hear - she was much championed & beloved by John Peel, which fits in with fact that I am just about to start reading his autobiography.

Larua Cantrell - California Rose (live in Kerry, Ireland 2005)
Laura Cantrell - Two Seconds (live in Kerry, Ireland 2005)

an ill wind blows no good...........

well despite Charlton losing in a most insipid style today at the new home of Spice Boy, Danny Murphy aka Sulky Spice - things aren't too bad

basically i am just happy to be here at all, after a terrifying flight on Tuesday night from Calgary to Vancouver - WestJet is/are a great airline, modern planes, good service & seatback TV's that provide live TV from probably 20+ stations

about halfway into the flight I tuned into a Vancouver news station to be informed of a powerful wind storm going on off the coast of Vancouver itself - this was the headline story & predictably enough there was footage of trees falling over & waves crashing against sea walls

oh! i thought, thats where we'll be in 20 minutes time & landing at the airport involves a flight out over the sea before a turn back into land

well we were not dissapointed, the flight got progressively bumpier, the hostesses dissapeared to strap themsleves into their seats a lot earlier than normal & then the fun started

the plane banked to the right to make it's approach & all hell broke loose, screaming engines, unidentified bangs & thuds & above all the feeling that you were in a metal tube being tossed around by some mysterious giant - i just stared out of the window into the gloom - straining for some sign of land/light & suddenly it was all over - we emerged from the clouds (it was also raining torrentially) & literally flopped onto the runway

the deathly hush that had prevailed amongst the passengers, gave way to relieved & nervous chatter - all in all, a pretty brutal experience

well after that everything else was pretty mundane - 3 days on Vancouver, a horribly early start on Friday (getting up at 4am is not humane) & a pretty good weekend

after a day on the slopes at Norquay today, we hit th epub where they were showing the Super Bowl Final on TV - it was hilarious, 30 seconds of action, 3 minutes of commericals, 30 seconds of action, 3 minutes of commercials, 30 seconds of action, 3 minutes of commercials & so on - what a waste of time

so Charlton may well have lost but at least it's (still) a prper sport & not just one excruciatingly long advertising exercise


ps - not sure whats happened to the Radio Player - its dissapeared!!!