iFrom magazine

   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...

It’s 9:10 Tuesday morning, and I’m sitting in a hotel room at Harrison Hot Springs, 150km from Vancouver, Canada, attending another sales training meeting ― an international one. In front of me I have a binder with the name Angela Electronics on it and a USB stick with all the Power Point Presentations. There is also a glass of water, my plastic room key, small note pad and pen advertising the hotel. The locations of these meetings changes, but the rooms and the carpets remain the same. Last year we met in Las Vegas, and the wife joined me at that Taj Mahal style hotel which had one of those humongous, clean bathrooms and three swimming pools (I used to nip out for a quick swim before lunch). This hotel has only one pool whose temperature is marginal but keeps honeymooners from fawning in the shallow end. Heinz from Germany has still not arrived and was last heard from at the Saskatoon airport where he was stuck. Mario from Italy left after the first morning, citing pressing busines...

  “Hello, and welcome aboard the Grouse Mountain Skyride! Relax and enjoy yourself as we take you on a one-mile aerial journey to the top of Grouse Mountain, 3700 feet or 1100 meters above the city of Vancouver.” Grouse Mountain is a coastal mountain located about 15 minutes drive from Vancouver, Canada. The lights at the top make it a landmark up to 80km away. It is a key tourist destination spot along with the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which one invariably passes to arrive at the car park of 6400 Nancy Greene Way. A gondola or as it is known locally a red Skyride takes locals and visitors to the summit where there is a myriad of year round activities such as skiing in the winter and mountain biking in the summer.  It was a foggy Sunday morning and John Meadows from Wakefield Quebec was greeting the folk on the half empty red Skyride. His portable radio crackled as he continued.  “Below us is the man-made Capilano Lake, which provides Vancouver with about...

                           Everyone has an opinion on humour, and think they have a sense of humour and say they like a good laugh. I recently read one of those  modified  research articles published  by  renowned university people saying  that  laughing is even more of a remedy to body’s problems than we once thought. I can picture a bunch of legally obese SUV driving university researchers procuring a fat government grant along with two conferences trips before printing these findings. Now, my Irish Grandmother sitting around a turf fire once said the same thing.  Shouldn’t courses  be  given on humour?             Since  I have an English accent,  people tend to discuss soccer and English humour  in my presence.  I care little about soccer but...