BT Edmonton Blogs

Where is your Happy Place — or do you have Happy Places?  Maybe you have more than one ’locale’ you like to escape to, that takes you away from all the:  traffic, deadlines, laundry, kids, bills,….you get the idea.  A place that always has a calming effect on me, is in the mountains.  I was incredibly fortunate to have spent the weekend in Jasper, with other media from in and around Edmonton.  Friday night, we were hosted by the kind folks at The Jasper Brewing Company.  Saturday, Marmot Basin provided unbelievably fabulous deep and fresh snow, with as much skiing as we could handle and the heartiest lunch to feed the need for speed.  That evening, the Jasper Park Lodge fed and watered us at a meet and greet.  And for those who weren’t totally exhausted (NOT ME!!) were invited to dance and play at “Champs Sports Lounge” at the Sawridge Inn and Conference Centre.

Plus, I was able to spend time with 3 great friends of mine–Jasperites: Martha, Kevin, and Andy their wonder-dog!  Andy was all decked out in his coat for our walk in the woods.

Don’t forget to send me any photos you have of Mother Nature!  Our Fresh Air Photo segment airs every morning at 7am – send them in through our website by clicking on connect with us.

Pyramid Mountain and the mighty frozen Athabasca River

The ice on whyte festival! Check it out – it runs thru this whole week…BT had the pleasure of being live there last Friday and let me tell you – it was AWESOME! Awesome to walk around and see these beautiful sculptures made from ice, beautiful to see the artists working on them in the early hour….but most beautiful and AWESOME was the 50 foot ICE SLIDE!

What is it about a slide, let alone one made of ice, that renders any adult back to their child like self?! Wendy, Ryan, Jason Carter, Cody, myself, and much of the crew arrive at 4:30 in preparation for the day. WE are all focused and excited to be going LIVE from Ice on Whyte. As everyone is busily readying themselves for the show, doing their various duties….EVERYONE, and I mean EVERYONE, has their eye on the ice slide…and everyone is thinking the same thing….’when can i go down’?!?

Well of course, I do. ‘Round 7:32 AM. After my most excellent BT extreme adventure team show up, consisting of Emma, Sarah, Laura, McKenna and Alex. All in Grade 3 and all with absolutely no reservations on showing their enthusiasm for the ICE SLIDE. They arrive and unlike all the adults who arrived earlier…there are shouts of ‘Awesome!’ ‘Oh my gawd’ ‘I’m first!’ ‘Mom, can I?! Please?!?!’  all the while heading up the snow stairs, half thrilled and half petrified at  how much speed they will actually pick up using the crazy carpet!

It’s alot of speed and it’s a whole lot of fun. It wasn’t long before Ryan, Wendy, myself and everyone else over 30 booted those kids off for one turn so that we could finally too scream ‘AWESOME!’ ‘Oh My gawd!’ ‘I’m First!!!’ and I think i even heard a ‘Mom, can I please?!’ from Sandwith!

It was most excellent. Go to the festival. For your family to enjoy and yourself! Get right up there on the ice slide and discover that inner child that is dying to go down as fast as they can!!!

A few of my favourite photos from Friday’s show at Ice on Whyte. What an experience – what visuals! Be sure to check out the festival – it runs until January 25th!

rpj

Our amazing crew was on site at 4am to set up the live truck!

What's an ice castle without an ice gargoyle?

Beautiful!

Bridget, Wendy and I - king and queens for a day!

Team name: Chainsaw Massacre.

An all-you-can-eat Marble Slab race. WOW.

The Edmonton Oil Kings swing on by for a little ice bridge shinny!

We gave it the nickname of Weather 101.  Gary Smith from City Hall school brought 22 of his most enthusiastic students,..and a few parents as well — to learn the weather.  We had fun teaching the kids about the “green screen”, or the chroma key wall.  The kids were wonderful, and even had the chance to become our studio audience.  Some of them had questions for our guest from the Telus World of Science,…asking about meteors and life in outer space.  Well, I know our lives here at BT Space will never be the same –and that’s absolutely fantasic!!! 

Weather Expert

Asha!

Weather School

Weatherman

Hi Mom!

Studio Audience

Drought, famine, poverty, AIDS, lack of education or basic human rights for women and children…such is the reality for many Ethiopians, especially those living in rural areas like the town of Didimtu.

Half a world away from one of the earth’s poorest areas, a group out of Westlock, AB called “Rainbow for the Future” (RFTF) is impacting change in Africa. Last March, I accepted an incredible opportunity to travel to Ethiopia with RFTF founder Leo Seguin, staffer Barbara Wilson, and Westlock Rotarians Les Dunford and Melanie Erickson. Shortly after, we aired a mini-series on Citytv called “Albertans in Ethiopia.”

Today, we welcomed Leo and Barbara back to BT to talk about new projects. With a contribution from the Canadian government (through CIDA), they’ve raised $300K to build a school, dormitory, health clinic, four wells and a seed mill – the latter, a hugely-important addition that will allow micro-finance projects to flourish. In Leo’s words, “A three-hundred thousand dollar development in Didimtu is like a Syncrude project here in Alberta.” In other words, the new infrastructure will have an ENORMOUS impact.

It’s tough to paint a picture of how desperate the people in Didimtu really are. Ten thousand Ethiopians rely on a diesel generator to supply water from an old well. Most days, it’s barely enough for the people, let alone their thousands of goats, cattle and camels. The average income is $100 a year. Many children, especially girls, don’t have a chance to get an education. Until recently, women were not allowed to own property or run a business. But through the work of RFTF and their local partners, these challenges are slowly disappearing. Of course, many hardships remain – but the work of the crew from Westlock is having a tangible, transforming, lasting impact for the people in Didimtu.

For more on the people and projects of RFTF (and for information on how you can get involved), check out their new website: http://www.rainbowftf.org/ 

rpj.

Drought in Ethiopia - a matter of life and death.

A picture is worth a thousand words...maybe more. This used to be a lake.

The children of Didimtu, Ethiopia.

Didimtu, Ethiopia.

RFTF's Leo Seguin and Barbara Wilson.

The very best part of this job is the amazing people we get to meet each day. Doris Maron is a phenomenal woman who made a return visit to BT today to tell us about her journey. At the age of 53 Doris decided to fulfill a lifelong dream of travelling around the world. Despite the fact that she could not find anyone who was willing to accompany her, she packed up her motorcycle and set out on an adventure that took her to 6 continents and 44 countries. In her almost 3-year trek, Doris was faced with illness, mechanical difficulties, and the political uncertainty of the events of 9/11. But the spirit of a woman who would embark on such a journey to begin with did not allow her to quit, and we can share in her travels through two captivating novels: Untamed Spirit and Untamed Spirit II. (Available at Greenwoods Books)

Ryan, Wendy and Doris

After the interview I asked Doris if she ever felt that her life was in danger at all. She replied that she occasionally looked back at a situation and realized that it might have been a dangerous one, but at the time she was just focused on her journey and kept looking ahead. I think this is a pretty good mantra for all of us. Doris simply did not want to come to the end of her life and think ” If only…” so, she forged ahead.

Meeting Doris has been inspiring and eye-opening. I highly recommend that you treat yourself to a conversation with her. Doris will be at the Edmonton Motorcycle Show this weekend, click here for information about the event.

Now go! Live the life you’ve always imagined!

xo

There’s nothing like the magic of live television.

As far as Mondays go, the first few hours of this week’s kick-off show were pretty much par for the course. Bridget was entertaining the masses “live on location,” Michele and Asha were hard at work updating the news, traffic and weather, and Wendy and I were doing our thing in the BT studio. Then 9:20 hit.

Wendy had heard of a Spanish television host who threw a temper tantrum when nobody called her call-in show (you can see how this might be frustrating). What seperated this host from thousands of other hosts around the world is this one decided to exhibit her frustrations on the air. She battered her phone receiver against her table, screaming at her viewers to call in. Moments later, the phone was destroyed, the show was off the air, and the host was looking for work.

As Wendy wrapped up her story, our producer Renee Mousseau walked up to our BT table (while we were still on the air) with a mischievous look in her eye. She handed me our studio telephone and smirked. What am I supposed to do in this situation?! Our director Kevin Youngblut immediately started talking to me via my earpiece, suggesting I let the phone live. But Renee’s smile persisted. I was caught in a dilemma I never saw coming – producer says yes, director says no. I decide to ring our phone’s bell like it had never been rung before.

We’ve all seen video of a rock star smashing his or her guitar after a particularly-satisfying solo, or evidence of a hockey player’s frustration as he smashes his stick over a crossbar. I’m not sure I can compare sacrificing a phone to those high-profile hijinx, but I can tell you we opened up a whole new can on Monday’s show. For the good of my employment, I’ll likely refrain from smashing any more electronics…but let this be a lesson: you never know what you’re going to see once the cameras start rolling on Breakfast Television!

The end result of daring Ryan to smash a phone live on the air...

rpj.

If you haven’t already — I invite you to check out Asha’s blog!  She is now the owner of a shiny, pretty travel mug.  What’s the big deal you ask?  Well, you have to agree that we live in a “fast food and throw-away society”.  There are paper & plastic containers for everything.  And all that everything, ends up in our landfills.  Not to mention the toxins and poisons that seep and leak into our rivers and streams from the production plants.  I, like many others on this beautiful planet of ours, am proud to be environmentally friendly.  I try not to be militant, but I do tend to ask my friends and family “where’s your travel mug?” – when I see them with a disposable cup.  And don’t get me started on how many disposable cups I have been picking up lately, because of litter bugs.  Let’s make it cool to carry a travel mug!!  Asha does,…and she sure is !!!

Maybe the producers who book guests on our show are trying to tell me something. I mean, come on…stories about going to the gym, a feature on new “MBT anti-shoes” to increase muscle activity (from our friends at Wener Shoes), talk of a proposed tax on fatty foods and drinks packed with sugar, and a focus on healthy cooking with our friends from Japanese Village? It’s hard not to see a trend developing here!

Of course, I’m not the only one carrying a couple more pounds in January than I was at the beginning of December. Safe to say, most of us indulged a little over the holidays. That’s why we dedicated today’s BT to getting back on track. Bridget Ryan discovered Reiki. Michele McDougall kept us posted on a 7 Day Forecast that seems to suggest those river valley trails could get a little busier by mid-week. Wendy and I read through dozens of viewer emails, all but one condemning a so-called “sin tax” on foods lacking nutritional value. I have to admit, the trend surprised me a bit. As a society, we’ve seen support for moves like taking pop out of elementary school vending machines or upping the tax on cigarettes. I’m not saying I personally support such a tax (in fact, I believe people need to be better-educated on quick and inexpensive healthy eating ideas, along with guidance on how to develop a more healthy lifestyle in general), I’m just saying I was astounded at the lack of support for the proposed tax “across the board.”

On the next BT, we celebrate Ukrainian Christmas. I’ll admit, my knowlege of the customs and traditions is minimal – it should be an exciting, informative show! Until then…

rpj.