Monday, May 29, 2006

Two Lane Blacktop.......

I finally got to see this 1971 movie tonight after capturing it from the net, it was so worth the wait - an extremely rare film - and if you get the chance to ever see it do so

Sunday, May 28, 2006

QF exit................

my first competitive outing for Canmore United soccer team ended in a QF penalty shootout loss in the Molson Cup in Banff - we got through our group in relative comfort, but faced the Bow Valley League champions in the Quarter Finals & after a tight 0-0 draw were dumped out thanks to the superior penalty kicking ability of our opponents

still it was good fun, playing on a pitch ringed by snowcapped mounatins with players from every nationality you could muster taking part and the upside of going out early was that we were able to hit the Rose & Crow in Canmore earlier than expected & sink a few consolation beers

i was in Edmonton for a few days last week, of course the big news up there is the progression of the Oilers to the Stanley Cup final - unfortunately this happened last night, (Saturday), rather than on the Thursday when we were up there - Edmonton is hockey town & their fans are almost European in their sports fervour - good luck to them in the final

next week we'll be in Victoria for most of the week, a mixture of work & pleasure - hopefully the weather won't suck so much as it has this week

Monday, May 22, 2006

Bank holiday sunshine - whats this all about eh?

somethings not quite right

its a bank holiday Monday and the sun is shining brightly - in fact it has been for most of May - warm sunny & hot - whoever told us Canada was cold was having a laugh - even more amusing is the reports we keep hearing of torrential rain & downright miserable weather back home

(at this juncture i should point out that this laptop doesnt have a functioning comma key - so apologies for the bad punctuation)

well the only thing to ponder now is what to do today - yesterday we scrambled up Mount Yamnuska not right to the top i should stress - it was hard work with a 19mo old baby in a back pack - but the views were wonderful - i will post some pictures later

Saturday was partly spent at the Canmore childrens festival - my daughter loved the clowns & the spachoppers - wasnt so sure about the bizarre fairy type creature on stilts who semed to invoke terror in every kid under 10 years old

we think we have sold our house in London - i wont say too much cos I dont want to jinx it - but we are a step closer to buying a house over here

i have caught up this last week or so on my music listening & have a handful of albums which i really dig

these are

Espers - Espers ii
Richard James - The Seven Sleepers Den
Mojave 3 - Puzzles For You
King Biscuit Time - Black Gold
Neil Young - Living With War

The Espers album is a real gem - ancient folk tunes dusted with modern electronica & effects - truly captivating. Richard James used to be part of Welsh band Gorky's Zygotic Mynci and here he presents a stunning folky album - think Nick Drake folk rather than the trad. hey nonny type though. Mojave 3 seemed to have peeled off several layers of the swoonsome country ambience that were the hallmarks of prior albums & this LP has a rockier side - with some songs charging by at express train rate - its all good in my book - Neil Halstead has hardly put a foot wrong since his Slowdive days & deserves more attention than he & the band ever get. King Biscuit Time is the new-ish project for ex Beta Band lead singer Steve Mason - its a heady mixture of beggy melancholia & dancehall riddims - i particularly love the first track C I Am 15 - where after 3 minutes or so of a lilting indie tune dancehall MC Topcat blasts in with a witheringly sarcastic denouncement of those brothers in blood - Mr Bush & Mr Blair. And - talking of politics I leave the best til last grumpy old Canuck Neil Young has issued forth with an album full of hate for the odious Bush regime - no matter that Youngs political judgement has deserted him in the past - this is heartfelt stuff & while it would be too optimistic to see it as another nail in the coffin of Bush & his axis of evil - the fact that is has shifted enogh units to reach the upper echelons of the US charts shows plenty of people buy into his message. There is hope yet.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

back in business.......

it's been a while

i'm back in Canmore, playing my first game for the local soccer team in the Banff Sunday League - i defy anyone to find a more picturesque setting than the one we play in, an elk poo, mosquito ridden field surrounded by forests and mountains

i got back from a week in Toronto last Wednesday, i even had the pleasure of watching the UEFA Cup Final live on TV thanks to the live satelitte TV Westjet provide - it was great, the normally dull 3 & 1/2 hour flight, um, flew by

we have had scorching weather in Canmore, 30+ degrees for about a week & at such altitude the sun is brutal, however as it's a bank holiday weekend this weekend the weather is due to turn crap about 4pm tomorrow might - honestly it is

now i'm back i'll get this blog up & running again

having said that i'm in Edmonton next week, Victoria the week after & then pretty much a week in Montreal

as the Beach Boys used to say, round, round, get around.....etc etc

Thursday, May 04, 2006

away from home..........

so a few nights in Toronto away from the misery in Calgary - the Flames were dumped out of the Stanley Cup last night & there was a palpable sense of mourning in the city this morning.

so a chance amongst the work to meet the Ginger Prince and his delightful g/f and spend a night or two in the urban sophistication of downtown Toronto

the flight across tonight was interesting the old boy in the neighbouring seat regaled me with tales of his time in London with the RCAF at the end of the war - a really nice old chap & it made the hours shrink

well as i type this Tony Blair is getting a right old kicking in the UK local elections - i can still clearly remember thecam euphoria when he won in 1997 cool brittania & old that - well right now he must be just about the most universally unpopular prime minister in years

i bet eating canapes & drinking champers with the Gallaghers seems like a long time ago now for Tone & Cherie

Monday, May 01, 2006

feeling at home....

as i drove down from the ferry terminal i was back in the green fields, rolling meadows & lush countryside of southern England - it was only the site of a big boxy, bland WalMart store & trucks on the road the size of small buses that told me i was actually on the Saanichton peninsuar of Vancouver Island

i was on the way to Victoria, the distinctly English flavoured city on the southern tip of this big island & in the evening dusk it reminded me of an upscale seaside town with it's olde world pubs and ivy clad hotels

suffice to say that we'll be making a special effort to come here this summer, it looks like a great place to visit & naff as they may be the allure of an olde world English pub is strong for an Englishman somewhat missing his beer gardens & stout yeomans of the bar

it seems that it's snowing tonight in Canmore, so i'll content myself by sitting here smugly in the balmy, salty air & watch the sun go down over the Pacific & savour a whiff of good olde England