Canada Day ... at the Millarville Races ...

106th Millarville races

1 July is Canada Day and this year, the country was celebrating its 144th birthday.  I decided to celebrate by heading to the Millarville (the nearest 'town' to my home on the ranch) race track to watch the 106th running of the Millarville races.

The day kicks off with the 'Musical Ride'

Side saddle competitors get ready to compete ... I fell in love with the horse on the far side

The day began with several traditional events, including a side saddle race, a stock horse race and a musical ride, where a group of riders performed a choreographed ride to a series of crackly songs.  The 'real' events - 6 thoroughbred races - got underway in the early afternoon.  These events were interspersed with foot races for the children.

Side saddle race

Stock horse race

The atmosphere was just slightly different to that of a race day during the Melbourne Cup carnival.  For starters, drinking was contained to the temporary beer garden, meaning that the crowd watching the horses was filled with good, clean fun, rather than drunken fun.  C and I had several animated conversations with the (mainly old) race-goers around us.  Secondly, the maximum bet was $10.  Still, this made for a difficult task when it came to choosing horses upon whom to place your money.  Watching the horses in the parade ring beforehand didn't help much as the horses were not nearly as sleek and fit-looking as those that you'd see at the Melbourne Cup.  So, I decided to choose my horses with a very complicated criteria ... the horse's name.  This turned out to be a lucky way to select horses as my first choice, 'Independent Woman', won the first race by quite a distance!  When none of the horse names appealed, I turned to the jockey names.  Valentino McBean and Hector Rabbitskin were my two favourites, with Valentino winning 4 of the 6 races.  Thirdly, the dress code was very casual.  No hat required ladies ... unless of course, it was a cowboy hat.  Shorts, t-shirts and bug spray was the clothing of the day and much needed they were as it turned out to be a spectacular summer day.

Thoroughbred racing

Coming up the straight

The Millarville races gave me yet another opportunity to reflect upon the unique experiences I have been involved in over the past several years.  Never before did I think I'd be singing (okay, mumbling) the Canadian national anthem at a country race meet in Canada.  Happy birthday Canada!

Nearly at the finish line

Nearly there

Neck to neck

Valentino McBean, you've done it again!

Children's foot race

Watching the country races is serious stuff!

Coming around the bend

Next Millarville event, the rodeo.  I'll be there.

ID? At 30?

I got IDed on the weekend.  Not once, but twice.  And, no, I wasn't at a nightclub.  It was at the movies and the local RSL club.  Not the kind of places that you expect to get asked for ID.  

Little White Lies - well worth seeing if you get a chance

On Friday night, we went to see Little White Lies at the Uptown cinema, an old run-down movie theatre that shows mainly art-house and foreign language films.  My favourite.  However, movies that are usually rated M15+ in Australia have an R rating here, hence the reason why one might be asked for ID. The thought that I may possibly be under 18 is kind of flattering, I guess?!

Legions Club in downtown Calgary

On Saturday night, I wasn't expecting to be asked for ID at the local Legions Club (the Canadian equivalent to the Australian RSL).  We were there to see a band as part of the Sled Island Festival, a local music and art festival (yes, it's festival season in Calgary).  The IDing process became quite ridiculous when a girl in our group was refused entry for not having ID ... she is in her late 40s and has kids old enough to be attending the concert.  Crazy. I know that those asking for ID are just doing their job, but can't people just have a bit of common sense when it comes to working out whether someone in their 30s or 40s needs to show ID?

Camera? No camera?

This is the question I ask myself each time I go walking or driving.  When I take my camera, I hardly see any wildlife, but when I don't take it, I see spectacular wildlife.  Like yesterday.  As I was driving down the ranch's driveway, I saw not one, but two black bear cubs!  It was quite amazing.  They ran across the driveway, into the bushes, then back out onto the drive and into the bushes on the other side, where (presumably) mamma bear was waiting for them.  11 year old B was with me and was equally amazed.  We stopped and watched them for some time before they disappeared into the thick bushes.  And I didn't have my camera with me.  Typical.

Titanic ...

One of the fun things about being a private teacher is that I get to take the kids on heaps of excursions.  This is also a fun part about teaching in schools, but the difference between a school excursion and a home-school excursion?  Only one child to worry about instead of 25!  This week, we went to see the Titanic exhibition at the Calgary Science Centre.  Our reason for going was that 11 year old B is currently reading Gordon Korman's 'Titanic' series and also exploring concepts surrounding the idea of heroism.  As we entered the exhibition, we were both given a boarding card with our passenger details.  This allowed us to follow the story of a real passenger through the exhibit, finding out at the end if we lived or died.  Luckily B and I were both first class passengers, so there was no bickering over that!  And, luckily for me, I survived my time on the Titanic, unlike B who was a male and therefore died a gentleman-like death by leaving the lifeboats for the women and children.  The whole exhibition was fantastic and extremely well set out, with a terrific audio guide with different stories for adults and children.  Now I just need to explore ideas for our next fun excursions ... suggestions are more than welcome!

An alcohol free month ...

Beers in Xian with my Dad, who has also recently jumped on my alcohol free bandwagon!

I did it!  I went for an entire month without a drop of alcohol passing my lips.  And, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.  I survived a wedding, several dinner parties, C's mini family reunion as well as several opportunities to enjoy a drink in the sun.  C bought a bottle of Verve to celebrate, but I decided to save that for a special time, instead choosing to ease myself back into the drinking life with a Corona in the sunshine. 

A day at Spruce Meadows ...

See how big they are?!

It's show-jumping season in Calgary!  For the next 2-3 months, there is a different event on every weekend at Spruce Meadows, one of the world's best show-jumping facilities.  I was excited to visit Spruce Meadows on Saturday for several reasons.  Firstly, I joined a tour of the facilities and got to go out onto the course to check out the jumps.  And, secondly, I was looking forward to testing out my new camera and getting some great action shots.  Having the opportunity to walk around the course was amazing.  The jumps were set up for the two classes that I was going to watch, with jumps with heights of 1.40m and 1.50m.  From a distance, it is hard to appreciate just how big and wide these jumps are.  It was quite amazing.  After walking the course, I settled in to watch about 60 rounds of show-jumping.  Brilliant.  It's such a terrific spectator sport because there is always something happening, the crowd ooos and ahhhs over the horses and riders and there are always a couple of spectacular spills to be witnessed.  The day certainly wet my appetite for the upcoming season and I think that Spruce Meadows is where I'll be found several weekends over the summer.  For now, please allow me to indulge by sharing some pictures of the day ...

Going ... 

... going ... 

... gone!

Doing the flagpole ...

The road heading to the US border

On Thursday, I made the drive down to the Canadian/US border to renew my work permit.  According to the US immigration officers at the border, this is called doing a 'flagpole.'  Yes, that is the official term.  It's even on the form they gave me to give to the Canadian immigration officers.  It was a stressful day because I was alone (I've never driven that far - 7 hours return - by myself) and a little worried (because that's what I do) about the process going smoothly.  The questioning process what quite scary.  Why the immigration guys feel the need to be so unfriendly and mean, I'm not sure.  But, the main thing is that I walked out with my work permit in hand.  Which meant that I could now get on with organising a Chinese visitor visa, which was proving to be a complicated process, applying in Canada with an Australian passport.  

Typical Albertan scene - cows and mountains

The drive back to Calgary was much more pleasant and I took the time to stop along the way and look at some of the interesting little towns.  The town of Nanton reminded me of a what I imagine a typical prairie town would look like - rail road and grainery on one side of the road, the shops on the other side. Nanton is home to a fantastic antique store where I spent a good deal of time poking around.  A town that I didn't stop in was Stand Off (funny name, hey?!), home to a large Indian reserve.  It looked like a ghost town, with dilapidated buildings that looked long abandoned.  However, upon closer inspection, it appeared that they were actually still in use.  The drive itself (minus the stress, of course) was quite pleasant with the never-ending prairies to the east and the foothills and Rocky Mountains to the west.  Hopefully next time I take that drive it won't be to do the 'flagpole'!