Chinatown Calgary

A walking tour of Calgary's Chinatown in the down town core only takes an hour. Chinatown is situated on Centre street where all four quadrants of the city intersect.
Chinatown Calgary     Click on the link to view the short video.

 

The Galt Hospital 1891-1955

The first Galt Hospital was built to accommodate six patients but soon increased to fifteen. If there were too many patients, patients were housed outside in tents (only in the summertime). This building was considered modern for the time, with sewer and hot water systems. The water had to be pumped by hand into upstairs tanks.

The hospital was run by the Galt family with Dr. Mewburn as superintendent. A staff of four nurses and 3 lay people were hired to care for the sick. The top floor of the hospital was reserved to accommodate the staff. Being so conveniently located, nurses were on call 24 hours a day.
The Galt Hospital had 4 sources of income: (1) a twenty-five cent deduction per month from the employees of Alberta Railway and Coal Company and the Great Falls and Canada Railway (2) Government grant of 29 cents per free patient per day. (3) a Town of Lethbridge grant of $400 per year, and (4) pay patients--meaning those who could pay.

In 1910 and 1930 additions were made to the hospital and increased the capacity of the hospital to 65 beds. Sir Wilfred Laurier the Prime Minister of Canada came to the opening of the hospital but the coordinator of the opening ceremonies mislaid the key to the front door and  the Prime Minister was not able to open the front door to turn the key in the door to officially open the hospital.

The Galt building has continued to serve the community. The Galt has been at different times a Senior Citizen's Home, Rehabilitation Centre and Health Unit. In 1966, the Sir Alexander Galt Museum moved from the Bowman Arts Centre into the Galt Hospital and occupied the top and bottom floors. In 1979, the Galt Museum & Archives took over the entire building. In 1985, the Galt Museum underwent its first expansion.

Our Lee Family held its 100th anniversary of Lees living in Lethbridge at the Galt Museum. The Museum has a beautiful foyer with a panoramic view of the High Level Bridge, the University of Lethbridge, and the Old Man River valley.  The Lee Family had an open house luncheon and invited the general public to attend the event to meet the Lees who had returned for the reunion. In the evening there was a banquet catered from the University Of Lethbridge food services that was operated by Aramark.   The Chef who prepared the meal was Charles Parker who had the distinction for cooking for the Queen of England.   If you look at one of my previous videos in my blog , you will see the foyer of the Galt museum with the Lee relatives.

I recently visited the Galt Museum in October and went on a guided tour of the museum. You can view the tour I took as I videotaped parts of the tour in the video post below .

The Galt Museum

Der Soon Yet

My Grandmother's maiden name was Der Soon Yet who was married to Lee Duck . I flew to Kelowna this summer to meet with Tom Soon who was 95 years old and was a baby when my Grandmother was their servant girl at the age of 15.  My grandmother at the age of two months was sold to a wealthy Chinese family in Guangdong Province to pay off a debt and became an indentured servant girl to a new born girl of the same age who belonged to the wealthy family. My grandmother grew up with the new born girl for 15 years.  At age 15, the girl from the wealthy family was betrothed in an arranged marriage to a 30 year old Chinese businessman living in Vancouver who paid for the passage of his 15 year old bride and my grandmother the 15 year old servant girl to come to Canada who was Tom Soon's father.  The young bride at age 16 gave birth to  Tom's eldest brother
and it was my Grandmother's responsibility to look after the new born baby.  I remember my Grandmother telling me , that a Soon family member came to her while she was looking after the new born and said there was a gentlemen in the next room who was looking for a wife and if she wanted to she had the choice of marrying this man or she could remain their servant girl.  My grandmother took a peek and saw her future husband Lee Duck and thought he looked so handsome in his wide brimmed hat, his nice white suit and the spats on his shoes. She thought I might as well have my own babies rather than look after someone else's babies.  My grandmother's brother who was a Der tried to buy her back from the Soon's because he did not want her to marry Lee Duck but Soon had struck a business deal with my Grandfather Lee Duck to purchase my grandmother so Soon could recoup the passage fees and probably the Head tax fees for bringing over my Grandmother. So in summary my grandmother was bought and sold three times.  My grandmother gave birth to six children in Canada---three boys and three girls.  From these children came a host of cousins and I have fond memories of our family get togethers with all the cousins.  We just had a family reunion in Lethbridge to commemorate 100 years of Lee's living in Lethbridge from 1914 to 2014.  Four generations of Lee descendants came from ages  8 weeks,  1 to 2 years,  4 to 10,  12 to 18,  25 to 65 and the elders 85 to 95.  Relatives came from Beijing, Melbourne, New York, Toronto. Utah, Colorado, Vancouver, Edmonton, Red Deer, Victoria, Lethbridge, Taber, Kelowna, Kingston, Whitehorse for a three day reunion.  Below is a picture of Der Soon Yet at about age 18. She is just a gorgeous beautiful girl , no wonder my Grandfather wanted her as his bride. My grandmother was one tough resilient lady. I remember my Grandmother when I was six years old and was present at her funeral when she died and I was in my late teens.  She knew the names of all her grandchildren and great grandchildren and loved them all.

Lazy Lee's Self-Watering Tomato System Video

I created a short video with power point notes that explains how to build the six different types of tomato watering systems. I found the single pot watering system and the water bucket system as the best systems for growing tomatoes.

Self Watering Systems For Tomatoes

I have been experimenting with growing tomatoes by using different watering systems and have come up with six different watering systems. The six watering systems are as follows:
1. Chicken Feeder Watering system
2.  Toilette float watering system
3. Bucket watering system
4. Individual container pot
5. Bucket in bucket watering system
6.  Buried Soaker hose from a bucket

I began by starting my own tomato seedlings in  April and May and placed these plants into different containers outside by June 15. It is now July 30 and I have some green tomatoes the size of my fist. I have planted different varieties of tomatoes:  Tom Thumb, Cherry Roma, Manitoba, Early Girl, Giant Dotto and Beefsteak.  I even started some tomatoes from cuttings from a tomato, I wintered over from last year.

Lee Reunion July 7: Celebrating 100 years in Lethbridge 1914 -2014

On July 7, & 8, over 100 Lee relatives gathered in Lethbridge to celebrate 100 years of the Lee family in Lethbridge.   Four generations of Lee family members attended.  Lee members came from Beijing, Australia, York, Whitehorse, Vancouver, Victoria, Calgary, Pincher Creek, Lethbridge, Edmonton,Tor onto, Utah  and Kelowna.  There are 14 different ethnic groups that have married into the Lee family.  The reunion actually began with some relatives meeting to play golf on July 6th at the Lee Creek golf course in Cardston. On Monday, the general public was invited to a reception at the Galt Museum from 12:00 to 4:00 pm to meet the Lee relatives.  Judy Chan created an unbelievable genealogy display that depicted all of our Lee descendants from 1905 to 2014.  The luncheon was catered by the University of Lethbridge catering service who also provided the evening the banquet.  After the reception some relatives visited the cemetery to pay respects to our Grandparents, Uncle Jim, Auntie Betty and Uncle Phil .  Before the banquet we gathered outside the Gault Museum for a Lee family photograph.   Each relative also released a helium balloon with their named attached.  During the banquet , their was a slide presentation commemorating Ruth Lee's 90th birthday.  On Tuesday, the Lee's met at Pavan Park for an all day picnic and in the eveining , there was a final formal banquet at one of the Mormon stake centers.  There were slide presentations on cousins and an uncle who recently passed away and some of Uncle Jim's old family videos from the 1950's. 

Fishing at Eagle Lake June 12

I have not posted for awhile, as I have been gardening, tutoring and experimenting with watering systems for growing tomatoes. On July 12, it was free fishing in Alberta without a license. Camilla, the wife of my cousin Chris Lee wanted to go fishing. I asked my good friend Doug Grey if he would take us fishing in his boat.  So we went to Eagle Lake which is a one hour drive east of Calgary. Eagle Lake has a nice campground, swimming area, boat launch , picnic area and a general store and even mini-golf.  We put the boat in the water around 10:00 am and fished until 4:00 pm . Using a fish finder to locate the fish we trolled using "Rattling rapella" fish lures.  We managed to catch 10 pike but released most back into the lake and just kept a couple to eat for supper. Doug filleted out the two fish.   I wore my Chinese straw rice paddie hat that I brought back from China much to Doug's chagrin.   The coolie hat is the ideal hat to wear on a hot summer's day because it acts like an umbrella and provides a complete shadow that covers your shoulders and so there is no sunburn or heat stroke.

Spawning Jewel Cichlids

April 18, Good Friday, and there is a snow blizzard outside when it should be a nice spring day. I go into my greenhouse and I am tending to my bedding plants, house plants and tropical fish. I notice that my two jewel cichlids are removing debris from a rock slab in the community tank. About an hour later, I look into the community tank and witness the female jewel cichlid  laying her eggs on the slab and the male cichlid would circle behind the female to fertilize the eggs. In the space of an hour their were a couple of hundred eggs laid in a concentric circle. I went and videotaped the spawning of the two cichlids.  This latch batch of eggs will be the 6th batch of fry to be hatched since January. I have to find another tank to place the female cichlid to give her a rest and prevent her from reproducing eggs. As long as the female is with the male, she will continue to be a prolific breeder but the problem is I have no room to raise the offspring.

Chinese Genealogy: Finding Your Roots

Chinese Genealogy

The New Penguin English Dictionary defines genealogy  as 1 (a) the descent of a person, family, or group from an ancestor or from older forms. (b) an account of this. 2 The study of family pedigrees.

One of the best websites to consult in one’s introduction to Chinese genealogy is written by Al Chinn in his House of Chinn website.  (http://houseofchinn.com/index.html)

Al Chinn states the two fold purpose of his Genealogy site is as follows:

A word of explanation about this website, it contains two sections. The first section is about Chinese genealogy and should be useful to those who are looking for their Chinese roots. It contains background information explaining about Chinese genealogy, the use of special terms and terminologies, and some historical information about Chinese names, a brief description about migration overseas by your ancestors and how to initiate the search for your family history in China.

The second section pertains to the Chinn (Chen) (陳) clan and should be of interest to those who share my surname. It touches on some historical information about the origin of the clan name, the State of Chen (陳國), Yingchuan Hall (穎川堂), the Chen Dynasty (陳朝), the southward exodus from the homeland in Henan Province (河南省) and later settlements in southern Guangdong Province (廣東省). It should be remembered that the majority of the present-day descendants of the Chinese immigrants who went overseas originated from Guangdong Province (廣東省) mainly from the Pearl River Delta Region (珠江三角洲) not far from Hong Kong (香港), and also from southern Fujian Province (福建省), mainly from the Xiamen (Amoy) (夏門) area. I hope your visit will be an enjoyable one.

(Al Chinn   October 10, 2007)

Al Chinn’s website has an introductory genealogy book for sale You Are Royalty: A Guide to Your Chinese Ancestor.   In the preface, he states “It is my sincere hope that this book will be of value to budding family historians who are primarily involved in the investigation of their Chinese ancestors. It should be helpful to non-ethnic Chinese who originally had Chinese ancestry, and also to English educated ethnic Chinese who have little or no Chinese cultural heritage.

Mr. Chinn offers for sale introductory root search booklets for the following surnames: Li, Wang, Zhang, Liu, Chen, Yang, Zhao, Huang, Zhou, Wu, Zhu, He, Peng, Tan, Lu, Lan, Cen.

According to Chinn, family names can be derived from the following sources:

·         Decreed by a sovereign

·         Dynasty name

·         Title name

·         Honorary name

·         Family name

·         Generation name

·         Official post name

·         Skill or occupations

·         Social name

·         Clan name

·         Feoff name

·         Political name

·         Place name

·         Direction name

The Calgary Lees’ Association in Calgary who have been in existence in Calgary for over 100 years has a generational chart that traces their direct lineage to Lao Tzu, the father of Taoism.  Lao Tzu’s family name was Li and he was known as Li Er .

Li Er was the 17^th generational descendent of Li Lizhen a court official during the Spring and Autumn Period (722-481 BC).  Li Lizhen adopted the name of a plum a tree fruit called Muzi which became the Chinese Character for the surname Li.

Below is the generational chart of the Calgary Lees’ Association from Lao Tzu (500 BC)  to the various Lee clans in Guangdong province that include the counties of Toi-san, Hoi-ping, Yin-ping, Hok-san and Sun-wui. (20^th Century A.D.) There is also a photograph of current Calgary Lees' Association members who are descendants of Li Er.

 

JUICE 4 U : Juice Bar In The Dragon City Mall

Located inside the Dragon City Mall on Centre Street in the Calgary Chinatown Core is one of the best juice and beverage bars of the all the Bubble Tea Shops in Calgary.  Although the selection is limited in comparison to the other Bubble Tea Shops, the beverage bar excels in terms of using natural ingredients and the drinks are the original creations of the health conscious proprietor Yan.
The beverages include: Gourmet Coffee, Green Tea Smoothies, and Fresh Bubble Teas. Juice 4  U also offers a choice of two light snacks----rolled crepes and waffles---that are made from scratch and baked before your eyes on the crepe maker or the waffle iron.  I sampled one of Yan's latest green smoothie creations that was a combination of papaya, mango, pineapple, kale and spinach that has no artificial sweeteners. The green colored beverage has a smooth texture, a bouquet of fresh fruit and vegetable flavors that tantalizes one's palate and quenches the thirst. This is the best smoothie, I have ever experienced.  The price range for beverages are between $3.95 and $5.50.

Walking Tour of Chinatown Calgary

Last June all of Chinatown was flooded in Calgary's worst flood. You can look at my postings last year that show the damage. Today is April 5, Saturday and it is only two months away from the anniversary of the flood.  Some businesses along Center street in the Canton Block have not returned such as the Gee Gong noodle house and a new contemporary art studio has taken over part of the space. Calgary's Chinatown is small in comparison to the Chinatown in Vancouver and Toronto. Chinatown Calgary is three square blocks at base of the Centre Street Bridge on the Southside of the Bow River in Calgary's downtown core. One can walk around each block in a systematic fashion and complete a tour of Chinatown in a leisurely stroll that would be completed in an hour. One could end the tour by having lunch in Chinatown and then visiting Sien Lok Park and sit and enjoy nature on the benches that surround the Return to Golden Mountain monument that is a 15 ton granite rock that was brought from Hoiping China and sculpted into a story that portrays the hardships encountered by the first Chinese pioneers during the gold rush to the Fraser Valley and the building of the railroad.
I decided to walk around Chinatown and see how the community has recovered.  The actual number of residents who live in Chinatown is just over 1300 people who comprise of Senior citizens who live in the different retirement apartments.  The people who own the businesses live in the suburbs. There are 100,000 Asians who comprise 10% of Calgary's population. There are many businesses that serve the Asian community for their shopping needs in terms of Oriental foods and goods. From the centre street bridge north of the Bow River to 16th. Ave. North there are Chinese supermarkets, restaurants , herbalists and acupuncture.   In Marlborough in  southeast Calgary there is the Pacific Plaza Mall. Also in southeast Calgary in the Forest Lawn 17th avenue known as International avenue that has over 400 businesses that service the Asian community. Finally, in the northeast community of Harvest Hills is the TNT supermarket, the T-Pot in a giant shopping center that service the large Asian community in this area.  The old Chinatown in the downtown core has been in existence for over 100 years and in reality the Asians have extended beyond that small enclave and is now mainstream in every quadrant of the city. I have created a 30 minute video in which I simply walk around the three blocks of the old core in downtown Chinatown.

Juno Awards : Tegan and Sara: Let's Get Physical

I am sitting at my computer watching the Juno Awards and the first award for best single goes to Tegan and Sara Quinn. Back in the 1990's, I developed the broadcasting program at Crescent Heights High School and two twin girls named Tegan and Sara attended my broadcasting classes as grade 10 and grade 11 broadcasting students. I remember these two girls because they were identical twins and difficult to tell apart when they were separate.  Sara was a little lighter in build and Tegan was a little chubbier in her facial features.  Both girls has full length hair that descended below their waste. They loved wearing baggy blue jeans, loose fitting flannel shirts and big belts with chains attached.  One day Tegan brought an acoustic guitar into the classroom and began strumming and Sara began to sing to the melody. I asked them who wrote the song and Tegan said she made up the melody and Sara made up the lyrics. It was something they did for fun.  Both girls were typical adolescents with mood swings and crushes on different boys.  These two girls were free spirits who at the time did not know what they would do in life, they just lived for the weekend with their group of friends.  I cannot remember the name of their first song that they sang for me but what I remembered was that their voices harmonized beautifully and they sang their lyrics with emotion.   The two girls prided themselves on writing their own original music and did not like doing cover songs.  I told the two girls that they should start going to coffee shops that have an open mic and start playing at coffee shops.  The girls asked me "What if the people at the coffee shops refuse to let us play?"  I told them to keep going to different coffee shops and offer to play for free and give them a short sample of what you play and if they refuse come back next week and keep bothering them until they finally agree to let you play. The whole broadcasting class that these girls attended for two years were all a bunch of free spirits and I gave them freedom to create because this was a locally developed course that I had created at the school that had developed into a full time program in three years.  One day the two girls came to see me and were so exited because they were now performing in coffee shops and you have to remember they were only grade 10 students.  In Grade 12 they won a battle of the bands contest in Calgary and ended up opening as an act with Sara MacGlauchan  at Lilith Fair and their career as musicians was on its way.  About five years later, Tegan and Sara were doing the University Campus's and I saw them perform at McKewan Hall at the U. of C. campus and saw them afterwards as they were selling their CD's.  Sara and Tegan were thrilled to see me and they had not changed a bit, they were still those two enthusiastic performers.  Watching them accept their Juno Award tonight, I can see they have remained the same--Sara is the spokesperson and Tegan lets Sara take the lead.  Tegan and Sara always prided themselves in saying that they were not main stream performers but with their original music today they have kept redefining themselves and now they are main stream but Tegan and Sara it does not matter, you are still the same little girls I used to teach. I am so proud of you for following a dream and finding success.

March Snow Fall In Spring

Today is Sunday March 30 and it is still snowing. Last week on Saturday, March 22 it was snowing and temperature was dropping to around  minus 9 Celcius when I went out to my greenhouse around 4 pm in the afternoon to discover my breaker had blown because of a short circuit in my greenhouse. One of my power bars connecting the fish tanks with electricity had blown and fused one of the electrical plugs to the power bar that caused the breaker to blow. I went downstairs to the breaker box and found that breaker had been tripped but it would not reset. The breaker was broken. For over an hour I tried to reset the breaker with no success. I finally phoned a friend who came over and rewired a wire into an empty breaker.  In two hours the temperature in the greenhouse had dropped to 2 Celcius.  With the breaker fixed and reset, the furnace in the greenhouse kicked in and the temperature rose to 10 degrees above Celcius.  I was fortunate not to have lost all the tropical fish, a the orchids, fig trees, house plants and bedding plants to the cold.  The next day, I had someone come and change the default breaker to avoid a future short in the box.  I took  a short video of the greenhouse to take inventory of what was saved in the greenhouse.  As you can see although it is still winter outside, spring has begun in the greenhouse and the fig trees are beginning to leaf out.

Dome Productions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4X96Jp2nnqM

On this link is a video of Dome Productions new regional office in Calgary to store their mobile television stations when not in use or in need of repair. Dome has 15 of these mobile trucks in operation around North America to cover sporting events or other major events with the main production studio being in the Sky Dome in Toronto.  My cousin Chris set up the Calgary Regional Office that services and stores Dome Production Mobile Units that are not in use between sporting events. He called me up so I could view one of the mobile units that came in while the Sochi Olympics were being televised in Russia, there was a little down time in North American sporting events.

Chinese Cooking: Steam Cooking : Steamed Pork or Substituted Meats

STEAM COOKING

Steam cooking is used with rice, meat, poultry, buns, dumplings, pastries and custards as well as keeping fish moist and tender. Steamed dishes are cooked in their serving dishes and go directly table steeped in their natural juices and flavours.  Direct steaming calls for live steam to rise from the boiling water to circulate and cook the food by direct contact. Steaming can be on a rack, pot containing boiling water or a steamer. In rack steaming the rack stands two or three inches above the water. The ingredients are placed in shallow dish and set on the rack.  The pot within a pot places a bowl on the bottom of the pan surrounded by boiling water and is used for large cuts of meat.  I prefer using a enclosed steamer with water in the bottom, two trays and a covered top. Ingredient steaming may take 15 minutes to several hours.  One must periodically check the level of water and replenish the boiling water lost to evaporation.

(Paraphrased from: Gloria Bley-Miiler. (1994) The Thousand Recipe Chinese Cookbook. New York: Simon & Shuster.)

CHINESE STEAMED PORK   by Ron Lee

INGREDIENTS:

Steamed pork only   or substitute (beef, moose or elk burgher only)

One pound minced pork (elk burgher or moose burgher should be mixed with 50% pork)

2         tablespoons of cornstarch

1     EGG

Water chestnuts (sliced in strips)

Black mushrooms (diced)

Baby corn (diced)

Bamboo shoots (sliced in strips)

1/2 cup of water

2 tablespoons of light soy sauce

UTINSELS:    Steamer,   dish to hold chopped meat pattie

PREPARATION:

1. The traditional Chinese method to make the diced pork meat was to use two meat cleavers and slice the meat into small strips and then use the two cleavers in both your right and left hands  and begin chopping the meat into a finely ground mass. (Using a Cuisinart makes the meat stringy)

2. Once the meat is chopped you would add the diced black mushrooms, water chestnuts, bamboo shoots and mix together.

3. In a measuring cup you would place one beaten egg with a half a cup of water.

4.  Take the meat mixture and slowly partially cook the meat mixture in a wok with oil in the bottom of the wok.

5. Add the mushrooms, baby corn, and bamboo shoots.  (You can add what you like) Grandpa would sometimes add minced ginger root with the egg water mixture into the meat mixture.

6.  Place the half cooked meat mixture into glass bowl or glass pie plate and place in the steamer. Flatten the meat mixture into a nice big fat meat pattie.

7. Place the two tablespoons of soy sauce on top of meat pattie.

8. Place the meat plate into your steamer.

9.  Steam the meat mixture at the lowest possible steam temperature.  The longer /slower steaming time will produce a more tender meat dish.

10. Steam for at least 20 minutes.

 

Note:   For just the steamed pork:  One stirs the two tablespoons of cornstarch into a half cup of water that is added to the half-cooked meat mixture and follow the same procedure for steaming.

I believe this is one of Lee Duck's original recipes that he taught my grandmother and his children. My mother showed me how to make this recipe. The dish is quick and easy to prepare and it is quite tasty when served with steamed rice. This a dish native to Toisan Province in Guangdong Province.

 

Chinese Cooking: Cantonese stir-fry

The Essence of Chinese Stir-Fry

The aesthetics of Chinese cooking is designed to please all the senses. Foods are combined to blend fragrances into memorable aromas. Color is important. The Chinese love the clear gold of chicken broth, the whiteness of rice and the green of vegetables. There is the play of textures by combining crunchiness and smoothness such as the crispness of celery and the creaminess of bean curd. Exquisite smooth sauces stimulate the senses with contrasting tastes.  There is a contrast and variety in dishes by playing hot dishes against cold, small ingredients against large, dry dishes against gravies, sweet with salty, bland against highly seasoned. There is no one main dish in a Chinese dinner but several dishes. Chinese cooking calls for maximum preparation and minimum cooking. The starting point is the ingredient, not the cooking. Ingredients are combined and not cooked alone. It is the cook that seasons the food and the cook who cuts the food and not the diner. The civilized person who partakes in the dinner needs only a pair of chopsticks and a soup spoon.

The Cantonese style enhances the original taste of each ingredient and blends natural flavours. A few  seasonings  are needed such as ginger root, garlic, soy sauce and wine.  The quick method of stir-frying

is the  characteristic of Cantonese cooking.

The following dish is a variation of a vegetable and pork stir-frying dish that I created. Chinese cooking is noted for what is available and what happens to be in season.

Stir-Fried Asparagus, Peppers. And Pork  ( 4 to 5 servings)

Ingredients:

3 peppers ---red , green, orange

2 bunches of asparagus

2  large pork chops or pork loin ( 1 lb.)

4 slices of ginger root

3 cloves garlic

½ tsp of black pepper

½ cup of black bean

3 tablespoons light soy sauce

Olive oil

Utensils:

Cutting knife

Cutting board

Spatula

Wok

 

Preparation:

Cutting is important in Cantonese Chinese cooking when stir-frying. Ingredients cut into small pieces can be stirred easily, cooked quickly and eaten with chopsticks. In cutting the ingredient consideration is given to the nature of the ingredient, how it is to be cooked and the combination of ingredients. Cutting improves the flavor by exposing a large surface area for seasoning. Chinese cutting includes : slicing, dicing, shredding and mincing.

1.       Slice the peppers using a straight cut. Core the pepper and cut the peppers into vertical strips.

2.       Slice the asparagus using a diagonal cut.  The asparagus should be uniform in size to the peppers strips.

3.       Straight cut four slices of ginger root and then mince the slices.

4.       Place the cut peppers, asparagus and minced ginger into a bowl of cold water.

5.       Straight cut pork chops into thin strips along the grain of the meat. Cut the strips into one or two inch lengths and ½ inch widths.

6.       Mince the garlic cloves and sprinkle minced garlic over pork strips

Stir- Frying

1.       Place the wok on the stove and pour two or three tablespoons of olive oil into wok.

2.       Turn the stove on high heat and heat wok until oil is hot.

3.       Stir- Fry the vegetables first.  Add one or two handfuls of peppers, and asparagus and quickly turn for one to two minutes and place in a bowl. Vegetables will still be crispy.

4.       Add more oil to the wok and under high heat begin to stir fry the pork in small handfuls. Remove to a bowl. Make sure pork is well done and no pink coloring.

5.       Add another tablespoon of oil to the wok and return the pork strips to the wok. Sprinkle in the pepper and add the half cup of black bean sauce.  Sprinkle in the light soy sauce. Be sure to be turning all the ingredients.

6.       Add the vegetables to the meat mixture and reduce heat to low to keep warm.  Stir-frying should not take longer than 4 or 5 minutes.

Greenhouses for sale

My good friend Dave Hartley is selling greenhouses that will be arriving May 1st. If anyone is interested in purchasing a greenhouse, let me know I will put you in contact with him. Dave has already sold and installed two greenhouses in Southern Alberta and they have survived this winter's cold weather and gale force winds with flying colors.  The greenhouses have an aluminum frame and hard corrugated plastic walls.  The dimensions of the greenhouse is 7 feet high, 8 feet wide and 12 foot long.   The cost for .one greenhouse is $1400. Dave will install the greenhouse with  a wooden base made of treated timbers and a gravel base for another $1,000 for a total cost of $2,400.

Medical Malady: Survival In A Minefield Of Medical Mistakes

In the third week of February I was running a booth for Merit Travel at the Calgary Teachers' Convention when I happened to meet Prad Chadhuri.  I had taught Prad's son Bobby twenty five years ago who was one of my star debater's when I was an English teacher at Western Canada. Bobby's promising medical career was abruptly cut short when he suffered anaphylactic shock by unwittingly consuming food laced with peanuts that would cause him to be placed into a coma with devastating results .  Prad Chauduri has recently published a book documenting the medical tragedy of Bobby's treatment and the medical malpractice that is not as uncommon as one thinks.  The book is called:   Medical Malady Survival In A Minefield Of Medical Mistakes. ISBN 978-0-9919404-1-7
I read the book in one evening and it is written from the point of view of  Bobby's father who through thorough investigation has shown the backroom politics of the medical profession in collusion with legal professionals whose main goal is to profit from medical malpractice where the victim is further victimized.   I read the book and knowing all the major players in this story was shocked of how our legal and medical system has failed Bobby.   Am I surprised? No.  I saw Bobby after the convention who was speaking at the Convention about his condition. Although now confined to a wheel chair, he was in good spirits. The lesson, I learned from this book, is that if you ever become a victim of medical malpractice don't trust the doctors who do not want to pay civil damages and who will quickly get a lawyer. And finally, get yourself a reputable lawyer with integrity or you will get sold down the river.   Justice is achieved by  those who have the most money and can afford the best legal counsel.

TWISTED ROSE DESIGNS

I was at the Calgary Teachers' Convention and was monitoring a booth for Merit Travel in the Telus Convention Centre.  During my break, I took a tour of all the display booths and discovered a lovely jewellery display booth operated Vi Parker , the owner of Twisted Rose Designs.  Vi creates custom jewellery using wire and semi-precious stones to make customized necklaces, bracelets and ear rings. Her designs are her own creations.  She was clearing out loose bags of semi-precious stones and beads that I purchased for my daughter who loves to make jewellery. I had a lovely chat with Vi Parker who was more than willing to talk about the art of making jewellery. I asked her to give a little presentation about her craft that I could place in my blog and she was more than willing to participate.  Crochet necklaces are her specialty with only a few people who make such a unique jewellery.

If you wish to purchase any of Vi Parker's jewellery she can be contacted at:
TWISTED ROSE DESIGNS
Creative Jewelry
Pandora Style Charms
Crochet Necklaces
Phone:   587-351-0610
website: www.twistedrosedesigns.esty.com
email: twistedrosedesigns@shaw.ca

Merit Travel/Travel Cuts

I have been hired by Travel Cuts a subsidiary of Merit Travel that is the largest independent travel company in Canada with over 40 locations. I am an independent travel agent that helps people customize their travel plans. In helping clients make their travel plans, I have access to all the land packages made available by all the reputable travel operators around the world. I show the clients the different brochures from the tour operators and then have the office staff at Travel Cuts book the appropriate tour. I can also completely customize tours for groups as small as two people to large groups .  I am able to use the Travel Cuts office that is located in McEwan Hall Student Centre located on the University of Calgary campus.   It is quite amazing all the tour packages that are available to any place in the world.  I periodically meet the tour operators who fly into Calgary to promote their land packages.   I am going to show you a brief video of some of the different land packages that are available such as tours of Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Middle East, Latin America,  Cruises, and specialty tours.   Next week, I will be running a booth at the Calgary Teacher's Convention for Merit Travel.   I just finished writing my final immigration exam and will know in four weeks whether I passed the government exam and be eligible to become a registered certified ICCRC immigration consultant. I will then have two part time jobs to keep me occupied during my retirement from teaching.

Breeding Jewel Cichlids

The two breeding cichlids that I took out of the five gallon tank and placed in the community tank a week later laid a number of eggs on a rock slab and began protecting the eggs from the other fish in the tank.  The female and male took turns hovering over the eggs to protect them.

Jewel Cichlids

I purchased five jewel cichlids from Gold's Aquarium and placed them in a five gallon aquarium.  For the environment in the aquarium, I placed a small gravel substrate on the bottom. Since Cichlids like to hide , placed a limestone rock with holes in front of a small clay pot turned on its side to simulate a cave. At the other end of the aquarium , I placed a ceramic blue cup on its side to simulate another cave. An alpha male and an alpha female paired up. The male would chase the female around the tank and would bend his body in front of the female in a courtship ritual. The two cichlids took refuge in the clay pot where the female laid her eggs that were fertilized by the male. The female hovered over the eggs to protect them from being eaten by the other cichlids. Eventually, the male and female alpha cichlids harassed and bit the three other cichlids who all eventually died. I would find a dead cichlid once a week floating in the tank and I would fish it out. I did not know that I had a breeding pair in the tank and just assumed that the cichlids were demonstrating their typical aggressive behaviour to one another.  Over 21 days, the three cichlids were killed and shortly after the eggs hatched and low and behold swimming on the bottom of the tank were 100 fish fry cichlids with the female and male hovering over the fry in a protective posture. The two adults did not eat their young and still were in their parental protective mode. I netted out the two parents and placed them in my large tank with my other cichlids and they immediately set up a territory in their new environment.  I purchased a package of brine shrimp that is microscopic food for the cichlid fish fry who need nourishment once their egg yolk sacks have disappeared. I will feed the cichlid fry the microscopic brine shrimp for one week until they will be a large enough size to eat fine dry fish flakes.   With a 100 fish fry, I will eventually need to get another tank as the fish grow.

Laura and Ainsley

Now that I am a retired school teacher, I have embarked on other careers to fill the void of not having to go to school to teach on a regular basis. I am now a independent travel agent for Merit Travel , the largest independent travel company in Canada with over 40 locations.  I am also studying to pass my ICCRC full skills exam to become a certified immigration agent. I also spend time in my greenhouse experimenting with trying to breed tropical fish. I have 9 tropical fish tanks in my greenhouse. Today, I decided to visit two of my former teaching colleagues at Forest Lawn High. In my last two years of teaching, I was located in the science wing because I was teaching horticulture in the greenhouse and biology lab. I taught across the hall from two science teachers----Ainsley T. and Laura K. The two lady teachers would walk into my horticulture class during their preparation periods to see what kind of lessons I was teaching.  I taught floral arrangements,  propagation of tropical house plants and bedding plants. I even showed the students how to make home made apple pies that we baked in the commercial cooking ovens.  When we made flower bouquets for sale, I would periodically send my students to deliver complimentary bouquets to Laura and Ainsley which caused them to squeal with delight. Their students thought I was trying to date them which was hilarious. During my preparation period, I would return the favor and walk into their classes to observe their science lessons and was impressed with their teaching approach to teaching chemistry and biology. These two ladies are two great teachers who are able to motivate students to learn in an enjoyable environment. I do not miss the politics of teaching but I do miss the camaraderie of my fellow teachers so I just dropped by during exam week to visit Laura and Ainsley who I consider good friends even though they are much younger than me we shared many laughs over the five years that we taught together.

Patricia's Birthday Party

During the Christmas holidays, I received a surprize email from Michelle Phillips from her home in London England, inviting me to attend her older sister's  surprize birthday party to be held in Calgary at the Angel and Ox restaurant on 17th avenue southwest.  Thirty years ago, I was the private tutor to these two girls when one was 18 and the other was 13.  I tutored the girls on their private estate in Springbank. I also took the girls to their skating lessons at the Glencoe club where I learned about the elements of figure skating. I also recall driving Michelle to Sunshine to go skiing. Michelle took me to the top of the black diamond run for my first attempt at downhill skiing that was one of the most horrifying experiences of my life since it was my first time on downhill skis.  How time flies. One of the girls is turning fifty and she now has a 17 year old daughter and the other sister has a nine year old daughter. The two girls I tutored thirty years ago are still the same nice effervescent and high spirited girls who are now successful business entrepreneurs.  The birthday party at the Angel and Ox was held in the private room with unlimited bottles of chilled wine being served,  plates of tapas circulated the room with waiters explaining the nature of the appetizers . The signature entrée was the paella.  It was a great evening of meeting the friends of the two girls. I was introduced to everyone by their mother as the girls' high school tutor much to the surprise of the guests.