Unhappy Planet

Some academic tree huggers have put together an interesting scale that was done showing a "Happy Planet Index". This was calculated by looking at the combination of how satisfied people are, the life expectancy and how well managed the ecological aspect of the country is.

Hardly surprising is the fact that Zimbabwe comes last in the list of 178 countries with a Happy Index of 16.6. Other "happy countries" like Fiji, the Philipines, Argentina come in with a Happy Index of over 50. The "happiest country" was a little island nation called Vanuatu. Perhaps it is time to ask for a transfer...

The link for this scale is here: http://www.happyplanetindex.org/list.htm

Vancouver eh?

So as you read in my previous posts I was in Vancouver last week - and I love that city! It has an awesome vibe, and is very much geared to residents and the tourists that flock to the city.

It is a port city and as can be seen in this pic there are cruise liners docked beside the rather impressive convention centre. There is construction going on on the other side of the convention centre to expand its size to nearly half a million sq metres.... Which is HUGE!

I did a lot of walking around the city and some select pictures have been uploaded here.

One of my favourite pics was a panorama that I stitched together of the city. I used a program called Interactive Studio to do it and it worked really well. I have included this below:

There is also a massive state park right near the downtown core of Vancouver called Stanley Park. I didnt get the stats for it, but it is incredible and I included some pics I took in the link above.

I got it, I got it!

Its as if I won the lottery, well not quite... But close! I got my US Visa, and lo and behold I check it to see the number of entries, and I dont see a "1", I see something that I had to confirm with the security guard - a "M". That means I can come and go to the "land of the free" (sic) as much as I like for the next year... I think the Visa guy must have been charmed by my *unamused* conversational skills at the interview, where after getting to the consulate at 8:30am I eventually got into my face to face interview at 12:26, which lasted a total of 4 minutes, most of the time of which I was explaining how to identify controls in an IT environment (hey he wanted to know what I did...)

So I'm going to LA next week-ish, more on that in later posts!

Travelling to the US... Is it worth it?

So I have training that I have to attend in the US, and because I have the notorious green mamba (the Zimbabwean passport) I obviously have to get a Visa to travel there. I had to go last year and went through this process in entirety, from having to fill in complicated, convoluted forms, get a letter from my work to say that they are keeping me as an employee in Canada, paying USD100, proving that I have a valid work permit for Canada. To top it all off I have to travel to another major city for a personal interview as their is no US consulate in Winnipeg. It really feels like you are going through the 3rd degree, and all for a 3 or 4 day trip to the US for training, which although its likely to be interesting, could really be held in Canada somewhere.

The crazy thing with this whole situation is that I have training again in the US in August. So I will likely have to go through this all again in a few weeks, as, because of my passport, they are unlikely to grant my request for a "multiple entry" Visa. I'm really going to try and convince them that I need this tomorrow in my interview, however the bureaucracy which these Visa agents follow could quite easily compare to most African countries (at least the waiting conditions in the consulate are better though).

I'm telling you all this because I am on a flight to Vancouver right now. My flight was delayed and I am sitting next to a rather inebriated man, so this is all adding to the whole annoyance factor.

Canadia day

Well it was Canada Day this past weekend. Everyone here seems to really take advantage of long weekends, and they certainly partied this one up. The street by my apartment actually closes down a few blocks for an all day/night street party which is pretty well attended. They have street performers singing and entertaining the crowds. I'll be updating this post with pictures when I have some pictures on this machine.

There is also a big festival which takes place at the heritage site in Winnipeg called "The Forks". The Forks is actually just the place where the two main rivers running through Winnipeg join, and this is of significance because of this was a meeting place for fur traders of old. So the forks is also a family event where they have various different entertainment things going on from concerts to clowns and magicians. This past weekend was also the first weekend that they opened the new skate park there, which apparently is one of the best facilities of its sort in North America.

They also have a fireworks display on Canada day night, which everyone and their dog seemed to come to. I went to that, and it was pretty impressive, I was trying to take photographs of the fireworks, which just wasn't working without a tripod, but it was worth a try none-the-less.

As Canada day occured on a Saturday they declared Monday to be a public holiday, which meant a long weekend. In addition, because of the close ties with the US the Tuesday (4th July) was also taken by many businesses as a holiday.

As a note for all those wondering why the title of this post appears to be mispelt - this was intentional. Canadia is the "backformation" of the word Canadian which describes people from Canada. Back formation works for America (American) and Africa (African) - why did Canadia have to be different?!?

Life, she goes on

So I have been keeping myself relatively busy these past few months... Its been a bit of an effort, but it can be done! I am really creating this post as a brief outline, I will have to come back later and bloat each of these into a decent story, but until then.... deal with it!

We had our departmental retreat a few weeks back just north of Toronto in a place called Nottawasaga... It was mostly training, with a few good networking opportunities. There are some photos which I will try and upload.

I was then involved in a Cancer Charity walk, which lasts 12 hours. A team has to have someone walking around a track for the full 12 hours (its a symbolic thing) and we raised money. Was tiring as I had just finished a full days work and then I didnt sleep!! Anyways it felt good to do something like that.

On the charity side, my church small group is in the process of making blankets to help re-habilitate released prisoners... Old jeans are donated to this place and we cut them up and make a quilt. We are not very good at this and have yet to finish one!!

My office had its "golf day" the other day, which was fun. We went to an out of town course, at a resort town called Gimli. I enjoyed beating a few balls, losing a lot of balls and just generally having a good time. I think it is more of a firm sponsored drinking day, coz they were handing out baileys on the bus ride out there!

This weekend, I am probably taking part in my first rugby match, which is bloody scary, coz I am not fit enough, and I am pretty sure I will be one of the smallest players on the pitch. Couple that with the fact that a few of the players do not know the rules well, so they may assume you can just tackle whoever you want like i american football... Oh well, I'm just going to try not to break anything!

Draining water & hemispheres

At one point this past weekend we had a heated debate as to whether the water drains in different directions depending on which hemisphere you are in.

The Coriolis Effect was sighted at one point as the contributing factor. After doing a little research online (as I was the only one who knew that this was bogus, but was unable to convince everyone at the time) I found that this is actually the case.... for perfectly circular, symmetric containers water will drain in different directions according to the hemisphere. However no-one's bath/sink/toilet has these characteristics. In everyday life the direction that a container will drain is dictated by other factors such as inherent spin in the water or simply design of the container itself.

The whole tourist attraction (in Kenya I think) where they take you to the southern hemisphere and the water spins one way and in the northern it spins the opposite way is nothing more than a cleverly designed scam - the initial spin is induced in different ways according to which "hemisphere" you are in.

I've included links to sites explaining this in much more detail:
Scientific American,Interesting Thing of the Day and Bad Coriolis

Banff, Skiing & Fun!

Before I start explaining the happenings of the weekend - I have only included a few photos here, I have put a few more up here.

On the Thursday night Casey flew into Winnipeg from London. I had organised to go and watch a Manitoba Moose (Ice hockey) game that night, but I felt really bad cause she was suffering with the time difference, we ended up getting to sleep at like 5am London time!! We both enjoyed it none-the-less though! It was quite funny, coz no sooner had I finished explaining to her that they sometimes get into fist fights in ice hockey did one start up on the ice!

Casey at the ice hockey game

The next day we flew into Calgary from Winnipeg and then took a shuttle out to Banff. By the time we actually got into Banff we ended up just organising skiing for the next day and just having a look around the town. Its a very pretty town, obviously very tourist orientated, but the views in that part of the world are just plain mind-blowing!

View from one of the streets in Banff

On the Saturday we went skiing at Sunshine Mountain (one of the ski mountains in the Banff area). Neither of us had ever been skiing before so we decided to just book lessons and learn it properly! We had a full day's tuition inside the training area, with a magic carpet (a conveyor system to take you to the top of the training hill) and all. Our instructor, Kenji, was very good and decided we were all at the right stage to go down a "green" hill by the end of the day. That was awesome, the feeling is inexplicable until you actually do it! The entire day was completely surreal, fullfilling and tiring! We were both stiff and sore for the next couple of days, but it was completely worth it, and I think we'll both do it again!

Casey and I after skiing (it's bright and we are tired that is why we are squinting)

Jenny, Adam and Henry drove out on the Sunday to spend the day with us. We decided to go and see the sights in the area. The one place we were told we HAD to go and see was Lake Louise, so we went on a road trip out there. The weather got progressively worse as we drove out there, and by the time we got there it was pretty much just a white-out! What we could see what NOTHING like the postcards! It was rather sad as Jen had packed a picnic for us to have out there, but it was not pleasant at all outside, so we ended up just driving back to Banff and having lunch at a restaurant! One of the other things to see in Banff is the Banff Springs Hotel, which looks like a castle and is an impressive sight to see, worth the visit. We spent some time wondering through hotel as there is so much to see!

Me, Henry, Casey, Jen and Adam at Banff Springs Hotel

Those three then went back to Calgary and Casey and I went up to the hot springs on Sulpher Mountain. The hot springs are pretty much standard "Warm Baths"-type, but not as well done. Still very relaxing and theraputic, as we were both still suffering a bit from the skiing on Saturday!

Casey and I headed back into Calgary on Monday, where we spent the afternoon downtown looking around and shopping. Casey bought a few nice things, I am not a big shopper so was quite content to just follow the ladies around! We also went up the Calgary tower to check out the views.

The Calgary Tower

The views from the tower were amazing, you could see the Rockies quite clearly. There is a section of glass floor, just like in the CN Tower. Definitely not where you stand if you are afraid of heights!

Casey and I on the glass floor up the Calgary Tower

The whole crew from Sunday met up again on Monday night for a great dinner at a little restaurant in downtown Calgary. We were by far the loudest table there and were also the last table to leave - we were having a great time!!

Henry, Jen, Adam, Casey and I after dinner on the last night

Casey and I both flew out of Calgary at the same time. Casey was flying back to London through Montreal. It was very tough saying goodbye, as we had the most amazing weekend. We will defintely be meeting up again, however next time will probably be on the other side of the "pond".