iFrom magazine

                   It was Tuesday evening in Deep Cove. It was cloudy and misty but not raining.   Paul Tulley strode past Wickenden Park towards the boathouse. He was carrying his carbon wing paddle, red lifejacket, towel, and stainless steel BPA-free water bottle. He was again going to participate in the Tuesday night kayak race. His wife ,   Anne-Marie, was off doing Tai Chi. As he left that evening she had requested he win a red water bottle at the end-of-race raffle. “It will match my new gym bag,” she had teased in her affable Cape Breton accent.                   In the park two dogs chased after a bouncing yellow tennis ball   that   their owner had flung. A young couple walked toward a park bench holding hands ,   oblivious to the dogs and procession of kayaks and kayakers.     ...

We all have one. You may not like yours, it but you have one and you don’t like to be called by the wrong name. We hear or read of other people’s names everyday. You will have to repeat it to the laboratory health technician before they take blood. Hearing a name invokes a reaction such as favourable, curiosity or un-comfortableness. We  are concerned with pronouncing, spelling and remembering a new name. We are averse to calling someone by the wrong name. How do you remember names? The Dale Carnegie way is to pay attention to some one’s name and repeat it along with a mental association. Salespeople develop contact lists.   Mr Rosuvastatin Rivaroxaban. Sounds like a medication. How do you pronounce or spell that? Do people call him Vas for short? We often give people nicknames? Not always complementary ones.  When can you use them? How many nick names have you h ad? When is it all right to call someone Ginger? Some nicknames become enduring,  eclipsing the...

   Like the Vatican, Washington, District of Columbia is in one country but operates independently. It has an international flavour and appears un American with its numerous Italian and Greek monuments Yes, another of those second best overall places to live in the US, after Salt Lake City. Washington is an ideal vacation destination for a partner who refuses to go on cruises or sightsee. Just give them a copy of The Smithsonian Associate Magazine.   www.ResdentAssociates.org and enrol them in ‘Campus on the Mall’ with its many profound lectures and seminars.   I learnt that in   1791 George Washington appointed   Frenchman Pierre Charles L'Enfant to develop a plan for the city. It has a impressive metro system which makes getting   around easy. Foggy Bottom, Dupont Circle and L'Enfant Plaza become familiar station stops. Any city with a metro system promotes musical buskers and a fashion consciousness. I could not pin d...

   Denver, population 683,000, is the State Capital of Colorado and called the   “Mile High City’’ as it is 5280 feet or 1609 meters above sea level. Some conversational information:   football, Denver Broncos, basketball, Denver Nuggets, baseball, Colorado Rockies, hockey, Colorado Avalanche, soccer Colorado Rapids. Television series and films associated with Denver and its environs are Dumb and Dumber, Catch and Release, Mork, Mindy and Dynasty and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Gold was discovered in 1858 and hence Denver. But unlike other gold towns it does not own a boisterous river or even a babbling brook but a timid Cherry Creek, a tributary of the South Platte River.             I make the railways station of any town a prime destination. Of note Denver has rail service from the airport to Denver’s 1914 Beaux-Arts station. Here is to be found Lodo or Lower Denver which ...

     The sergeant major damselfish  greets me as I tumble under water. He is decked out in his ceremonially white and yellow tunic with   five vertical black stripes. Great my mask and   snorkel did not fall off and the water is not cold. I tread water in slow motion aided by fins. My gaze is transfixed to the colourful underwater world. It is like swimming in an aquarium  without   a glass wall.  Might I be fed down here? I press my mask just to ensure it does not fall off. What a tranquil world it is here! I just left a noisy tour boat of fins and foreign languages with English spoken in many accents. There are eight of us in my group and the plan is to swim  to the reef and  back.      Of course we must return to the same boat which could be a problem since there are many tour boats anchored here. The two sisters from Calgary are in the other group. How were we divided? By apparent fitness or who mig...

                The world looks different from up here. The water is far below. Kayakers and canoeists have to look up or pretend to ignore me. Their     choice. I can go eye to eye with power boaters knowing they can cause me grief with their wake. I did start on my knees but now am erect, centred over the board with my long paddle spearing the water. I did return half way to the beach to ensure I could get back and not arrive in Hawaii without my custom declaration properly filled in. A little girl with her mother plus one black and white terrier called Pickles watched me with interest go back out. I think Pickles had thoughts of a free ride to anywhere. I am sporting a trendy inflatable waist PFD which will inflate within 5 seconds if I jerk fully on the yellow pull-tab. I have lots of sun protection oil plus I wearing a sap green T shirt. The growl of a motor     boat moves away, it has no interest ...

I am in line at the Aldergrove border crossing, between British Columbia and Washington State, on my way to Seattle for a two-day cycling event. I have been behind a green SUV with California licence plates for the last thirty-four minutes. The girl passenger has changed clothes twice yet did not step out of the vehicle. Her companion appears to be happy, judging by his body language. They have a dog.                                                     Earlier in the lineup, just before the flags of both nations, a silver Mercedes with Washington Evergreen State licence plates tried to cut his way in front, but I was on to him. Just then, my cellphone alerted me to roaming charges. Several vehicles entered the duty-free compound a...