Recently arrived in Canada from England and on the road In May 1967 as newly minted landed immigrants, having some weeks prior disembarked in Montreal from the Russian passenger liner Aleksandr Pushkin my wife and I were innocents abroad so to speak. We were headed west to Vancouver and planning on taking a leisurely five weeks to do so. We had brought a new car with us, an Austin 1100 sold in Canada as the Austin America.* Fully exposed to the elements and extremely well lashed down on the ship’s foredeck, the car was windswept, salt spray pummeled and encrusted…

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The verb (slang) to con: to persuade someone to do or believe something, typically by deceiving or tricking. Usually for personal, often illegal gain. The noun (slang) a con: a fraud. If upon being asked if I thought I could be conned for money the answer would be a rapid and definitive no! Recently, I answered my business desk phone and as is my wont, in an attempt to discourage human junk callers up front I responded with a loud, brisk and rather aggressive without being too obnoxious ‘Barry Devonald.’ The fully automated junk calls issue incidentally recently and brilliantly…

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Although I have been into music for most all of my life, never in a million years did I think I would one day get to sing on Broadway. My first vocal coach would be amazed, my second likely staggered. Based on the excellent movie of the same name, the show was the musical ‘Once’ and the house was sold out.  ‘Music will open doors for you’ was a mantra wrought upon me as a kid mainly by various well-meaning relatives by way of encouragement. Like many kids, I wanted to play a musical instrument and started piano lessons. However…

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Have you ever toyed with the idea of taking a flight in a balloon? Just perhaps to see what it is like to drift slowly, peacefully and mostly quietly in the air. I did and it turned out, so had a number of my friends, all like me members of a loose coterie we self described as the ‘white knuckle crowd’. Collectively and/or individually we engaged in a myriad of outdoor activities. Downhill and cross country skiing, english and western horseback riding, scuba diving, white water rafting, kayaking, canoeing, four person bobsleigh,** hiking, climbing, sailing and salt water single seat…

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A lifelong hiker, climber and outdoorsman in general, thankfully the vigilance demanded traveling through rough and steep terrain coupled with that required to navigate other naturally occurring dangers, in particular the considerable risk of death or injury posed by lightning, was drummed into me in early childhood. There are about 2,000 deaths a year worldwide and about 25 on average in Canada. We are all of course periodically guilty of letting our guards down. Roadside tenting at the top of an isolated and barely drivable back roads mountain pass at about 3,000 metres above sea level in the Spanish Pyrenees…

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Coronation Street? I was present at the birth so to speak on December 9,1960. The first episode was broadcast live the transmission then of course in black and white. That was to be the first of more than 10,000 episodes to date. (who knew?). It was and is set in the fictional town of Weatherfield in Greater Manchester, the latter a large industrial working class city in the north of England county of Lancashire. As an eighteen year old pleb* set as it were and potentially stuck, in Barrow-in-Furness a much smaller Lancashire replicate of the Manchester scenario, I watched…

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Electing to surface to a submarine’s periscope depth in wartime, wondering what enemy threats or targets might or might not be present and hopefully visible during an immediate and rapid 360 degree scan is clearly both nerve wracking and exciting. Having once been afforded the opportunity to make a scan, in peacetime needless to say, I can report that it was pure excitement for me as, hands on the grips, I made a very slow complete rotation of a British WW11 era, diesel electric powered sub’s periscope. With diesel electric power becoming passé, the first British nuclear powered submarine HMS…

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On two occasions I have been in the vehicle when an individual has fallen out of a moving car. Obviously not something to be taken lightly. The first incident was when I was very young and was in fact the one making the unscheduled exit. I think I was perhaps eight or nine, therefore in about 1950/51 give or take. Playing with a wind-up toy, I had somehow wound up the toy and, no pun is intended, wound up (English can be trying at times) with a fairly significant piece of the toy’s powerful spring buried deep inside my hand…

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Fear and Trauma Climbing Fairfield Fell. *** Growing up barely ten miles from the mountainous and much beloved English Lake District National Park, I did a lot of hiking and scrambling (climbing involving also the use of one’s hands) year-round most often with a group of like minded thirteen to sixteen year old friends. One popular if steep and lengthy hike took us to the 873 metre summit of Fairfield which is categorized as a fell (from old Norse – see footnote) fells being one notch down so to speak, from mountains. Stormy winter weather was approaching however little did…

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Disclaimer: I have never been a member of the British Army’s Special Air Service — the SAS. SAS – Motto: Who Dares Wins! (I did adopt the motto.) The Special Air Service is a special forces unit of the British army. The unit undertakes a number of roles including covert reconnaissance, counter-terrorism, direct action and hostage rescue — Wikipedia Re hostage rescue: think the dissident Iranian Arabs’ May 1980 siege of Iran’s British embassy with SAS members abseiling down from the roof. (On live television!) SAS Wannabe Back when luxury trans-oceanic passenger liners were in fact ships and not the…

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