They have kids' classes for BOTH, would you believe? And while I was super-excited about getting Ella into a dance class or something, we agreed today it would be much cooler (no pun intended) to do something that she could only do in Canada. I mean, the hip-hop/shake-your-booty 45 minute dance class at the Shazza Bazza School for Pointed Toes can happen anywhere....right?
Soooo...Cay and Ella are gonna tackle their choice of ice-skating or rock-climbing.
Unless of course, you guys have any other ideas to throw in the pot?
Note: I don't think waffle-eating counts: they've already started.
Monday, August 27, 2007
The view from our room
Left: the beyond stunning view (suffice to say this photo doesn't even come close to doing it justice) from our room at the Banf Centre. We've had to keep brown paper bags on tap just to deal with it every morning.
PS As you can see, I finally got the camera sorted. Soon you'll be begging for photographic mercy!!!
Sunday, August 26, 2007
A blog entry of immense practicality
A repost of an e-mail conversation today between me and Girl Clumsy - partly cos I'm always forgetting to address the damn obvious on this blog (i.e. I assume I've filled you in on all the nitty gritty details but then realise later there are more holes in the story than a bunny-infested golf course) and partly cos I'm just lazy.
Girl Clumsy wrote:
Hey there!
Hope everything's going well in Canuck-land... I must say that Banff Centre looks lovely. My parents have been to Banff, but I've yet to get to Canada.
May I ask what is the nature of your residency at the centre? How did you apply, and do you have to pay, or did you get a grant for that as well?
It makes me wish I was actually a proper writer so I could do something like that!
Cheers, Natalie.
Well hello hon!
Great to hear from you! Everything's going beautifully thus far, makes all the agony of getting here totally worth it, I'm very happy to say. I couldn't recommend visiting this place enough - it's honestly the most beautiful and magical place I've ever been in my entire life, not that I've travelled that extensively overseas, but I've seen quite a lot of Oz which are pretty awesome.
The residency I'm doing is an independent one at the Leighton Studios, there are about 8 (I think?) of these studios on site that artists can apply to use for however long, for whatever purposes they desire. I'm using the time to work on developing a new show (specifically focusing on incorporating more multimedia into what I do, taking advantage of the awesome New Media Centre here) plus honing my performance techniques, practising lots of piano and voicework, plus I'll do whatever relevant workshops are going on at the time. I'm hoping to organise for one of my mentors from last year's trip to join me for some of the time too, but obviously that will depend on availability and funds!
I do have to pay for it, but thankfully they've subsidised me 50% - I'm waiting to hear back on a couple of different grants to help me out ,but worst case it's going on the credit card!!
Of course you can do something like this!!! You don't have to wait for someone to tell you you're a proper writer or anything - just go for it. I have to say I think I applied for about a gazillion grants (wwwaaaaaay before I was even closer to 'proper' or whatever that even means) before I got one. So I would say just check out anything and everything that interests you and put in for it - as my grandma always said to me 'you've gotta be in it to win it!'
Wow, what a rant. That's longer than my blog entries! Actually, I might even just repost this reply for today's one. ;-)
Take care honey and great to stay in touch.
Jen. x
Girl Clumsy wrote:
Hey there!
Hope everything's going well in Canuck-land... I must say that Banff Centre looks lovely. My parents have been to Banff, but I've yet to get to Canada.
May I ask what is the nature of your residency at the centre? How did you apply, and do you have to pay, or did you get a grant for that as well?
It makes me wish I was actually a proper writer so I could do something like that!
Cheers, Natalie.
Well hello hon!
Great to hear from you! Everything's going beautifully thus far, makes all the agony of getting here totally worth it, I'm very happy to say. I couldn't recommend visiting this place enough - it's honestly the most beautiful and magical place I've ever been in my entire life, not that I've travelled that extensively overseas, but I've seen quite a lot of Oz which are pretty awesome.
The residency I'm doing is an independent one at the Leighton Studios, there are about 8 (I think?) of these studios on site that artists can apply to use for however long, for whatever purposes they desire. I'm using the time to work on developing a new show (specifically focusing on incorporating more multimedia into what I do, taking advantage of the awesome New Media Centre here) plus honing my performance techniques, practising lots of piano and voicework, plus I'll do whatever relevant workshops are going on at the time. I'm hoping to organise for one of my mentors from last year's trip to join me for some of the time too, but obviously that will depend on availability and funds!
I do have to pay for it, but thankfully they've subsidised me 50% - I'm waiting to hear back on a couple of different grants to help me out ,but worst case it's going on the credit card!!
Of course you can do something like this!!! You don't have to wait for someone to tell you you're a proper writer or anything - just go for it. I have to say I think I applied for about a gazillion grants (wwwaaaaaay before I was even closer to 'proper' or whatever that even means) before I got one. So I would say just check out anything and everything that interests you and put in for it - as my grandma always said to me 'you've gotta be in it to win it!'
Wow, what a rant. That's longer than my blog entries! Actually, I might even just repost this reply for today's one. ;-)
Take care honey and great to stay in touch.
Jen. x
Friday, August 24, 2007
When I die, I wanna end up in Banff
I think today has been one of the most magical of my entire life. And considering that my 21st was an 'Enchanted Forest' theme, complete with goblins, gnomes and a washing line converted into a giant mushroom, I think that's really saying something.
Banff is just gorgeous beyond all words, at times walking around it today I felt like my heart was in serious danger of bursting.
Timmy, the kids and I - after our middle-of-the-night shenanigans - slept in until midday, then went off to enjoy our very first meal (at spectacularly cheap artists' rates) at the Banff Centre's main dining hall. WOW. Normally the word 'buffet' takes me back to the days of queueing up for years at Toowoomba's Sizzler, only to have mum force-feed my sister and I twelve plates at a time so as to get our full moneys' worth. But with some of the most magnificent food I've ever eaten in my life, The Banff Centre has fully restored respect to the word.
And ahhhh, the Banff Centre. I've barely been here 24 hours and already I never want to leave. It's an unofficial university of sorts for all creative types, who come from all over the world to take part in workshops, masterclasses, residencies, conferences, performances and everything in between, surrounded by utter unadulterated beauty from every angle - in other words: heaven on a mountain.
We spent much of the afternoon strolling the main street, took the kids to the Museum where Caleb spent much of the time cuddling the puppet grizzly bear to death - heaven help us if we ever actually come across a real one - then swam our hearts out in Heaven's fitness centre.
In short, bring on the champagne, baby!
For I am in love.
Banff is just gorgeous beyond all words, at times walking around it today I felt like my heart was in serious danger of bursting.
Timmy, the kids and I - after our middle-of-the-night shenanigans - slept in until midday, then went off to enjoy our very first meal (at spectacularly cheap artists' rates) at the Banff Centre's main dining hall. WOW. Normally the word 'buffet' takes me back to the days of queueing up for years at Toowoomba's Sizzler, only to have mum force-feed my sister and I twelve plates at a time so as to get our full moneys' worth. But with some of the most magnificent food I've ever eaten in my life, The Banff Centre has fully restored respect to the word.
And ahhhh, the Banff Centre. I've barely been here 24 hours and already I never want to leave. It's an unofficial university of sorts for all creative types, who come from all over the world to take part in workshops, masterclasses, residencies, conferences, performances and everything in between, surrounded by utter unadulterated beauty from every angle - in other words: heaven on a mountain.
We spent much of the afternoon strolling the main street, took the kids to the Museum where Caleb spent much of the time cuddling the puppet grizzly bear to death - heaven help us if we ever actually come across a real one - then swam our hearts out in Heaven's fitness centre.
In short, bring on the champagne, baby!
For I am in love.
And the downside of travelling with kids...
...they wake up at midnight, demand breakfast and then spend the next three hours jumping on the bed spilling rice cakes everywhere.
Plus there's the jetlag-induced psychosis. *shudder shudder shudder*
Back on the upside, holy expletive Batman! Banff is beyond beautiful. OMG. I wish I could show you the view from our room - but in typical CM crazy fashion my batteries carked it just as I started to upload them. Sadness.
We're now heading down to explore the town, get some groceries and all the while try to avoid bumping into the apparently crankier-than-a-jetlagged-toddler elk. 24 hours ago I didn't even know what an elk was, but apparently you do NOT want to bump into one in the middle of a forest. Then of course, there's the bears. I asked one of the staff here where I could buy bear spray and her reply was "You know, if you ever get close enough for it to be effective, you're pretty much gone anyway."
Hehehehehhee.
*gulp*
Plus there's the jetlag-induced psychosis. *shudder shudder shudder*
Back on the upside, holy expletive Batman! Banff is beyond beautiful. OMG. I wish I could show you the view from our room - but in typical CM crazy fashion my batteries carked it just as I started to upload them. Sadness.
We're now heading down to explore the town, get some groceries and all the while try to avoid bumping into the apparently crankier-than-a-jetlagged-toddler elk. 24 hours ago I didn't even know what an elk was, but apparently you do NOT want to bump into one in the middle of a forest. Then of course, there's the bears. I asked one of the staff here where I could buy bear spray and her reply was "You know, if you ever get close enough for it to be effective, you're pretty much gone anyway."
Hehehehehhee.
*gulp*
Thursday, August 23, 2007
The upside of travelling with kids
Damn, people can be friendly when they see you travelling with human baggage.
From the Qantas check-in guy who re-seated Ella and I to a row of four empty seats, so we could set up our own inflight double bed (I love you!), to the lovely Canadian ladies who helped Ella overcome her first tangible sign of culture shock in not knowing how to flush the toilet (I was stranded at the bathroom entrance manning our considerable luggage), to the immigration clerk who told me that Canada is so desperate for police staff that if I ever get pulled over for speeding, just to tell them that I'm thinking of applying.
Yes, that's right, even though our journey had its cranky moments, for the most part Ella travelled beautifully. We were directed to faster queues, we were handed special kiddy treats on the plane (ehem, I mean Ella was, ehem) and we even got the unimaginable from customs officers: smiles.
Plus as a bonus, I've already learned a couple of things, for instance:
- how during turbulence, Qantas has that one thing that no other airlines has: Dustin Hoffman's voice in your head going 'Qantas never crash.'
- how Canada's inability to commit to the one national language has both pros and cons. Pros in that magazine writers only need to come up with half the material, given that it is then translated in french for the other half. Cons in that of my three hour flight from LA to Calgary, two hours and fifty-five minutes was the safety spiel.
This afternoon we're back to the airport to meet Tim and Caleb, then the four of us crazy campers are off on the bus to Banff. More soon!
PS Thanks everybody for your brilliant suggestions for renaming the Comic Mummy blog. I've got it down to shortlist and am just waiting until I get my banner re-done so I can launch it with the visual enhancement is so richly deserves.
If I were a rich man...
From the Qantas check-in guy who re-seated Ella and I to a row of four empty seats, so we could set up our own inflight double bed (I love you!), to the lovely Canadian ladies who helped Ella overcome her first tangible sign of culture shock in not knowing how to flush the toilet (I was stranded at the bathroom entrance manning our considerable luggage), to the immigration clerk who told me that Canada is so desperate for police staff that if I ever get pulled over for speeding, just to tell them that I'm thinking of applying.
Yes, that's right, even though our journey had its cranky moments, for the most part Ella travelled beautifully. We were directed to faster queues, we were handed special kiddy treats on the plane (ehem, I mean Ella was, ehem) and we even got the unimaginable from customs officers: smiles.
Plus as a bonus, I've already learned a couple of things, for instance:
- how during turbulence, Qantas has that one thing that no other airlines has: Dustin Hoffman's voice in your head going 'Qantas never crash.'
- how Canada's inability to commit to the one national language has both pros and cons. Pros in that magazine writers only need to come up with half the material, given that it is then translated in french for the other half. Cons in that of my three hour flight from LA to Calgary, two hours and fifty-five minutes was the safety spiel.
This afternoon we're back to the airport to meet Tim and Caleb, then the four of us crazy campers are off on the bus to Banff. More soon!
PS Thanks everybody for your brilliant suggestions for renaming the Comic Mummy blog. I've got it down to shortlist and am just waiting until I get my banner re-done so I can launch it with the visual enhancement is so richly deserves.
If I were a rich man...
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