Goodness52

"I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike. I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride it where I like." It's maybe the silliest Queen song ever, but there's a reason Bicycle Race still strikes a chord with us 40 years after it was recorded. There's just something so charmingly simple about getting around on two wheels, and so liberating. So, during Victoria's Bike to Work Week , I did the obvious thing and went everywhere by bike. Getting to work and back was the easy part. For me, it's only a 5 kilometre round trip. Still, it felt great being part of the movement that saw almost half a million kilometres covered by Victoria cyclists that week. Clearly, biking to work is a big deal. Commuting on two wheels is getting more and more popular, and not just in temperate climates like Victoria. I commuted by bike for nearly 20 years in Calgary, and that city now has dedicated bike lanes because the demand is so high. In my new home town, I'...

"I derive genuine pleasure from touching great works of art. As my fingertips trace line and curve, they discover the thought and emotion which the artist has portrayed." If a blind person like Helen Keller can find value in visiting a gallery or museum, who in the world cannot? Maybe even me! So, rather than wait 'til my next European vacation for some cultural exploration, I spent the week touring some of the countless museums and galleries in Victoria. By the end, I too felt like I'd connected with some thoughts and emotions. I started with a family trip to the BC Provincial Museum, which included the museum itself and a pretty fantastic IMAX film called The Great Bear Rain Forest . Stunning stuff. Next day it was the Robert Bateman Centre, home to the ultra-realistic nature artist's finest works housed in Victoria's old steamship terminal. On the third day, I was off to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, which is attached to the beautiful Spencer ...

"I see litter as part of a long continuum of anti-social behaviour." Besides being one of the finest non-fiction writers in the English language, Bill Bryson is a committed environmentalist who has a lot to say about the modern way of things. And one of those things, unfortunately, is litter. In a week that saw an explorer uncover garbage in the deepest depths of the world (the Mariana Trench) and a team remove tons of garbage on the world's tallest mountain , I made a miniscule contribution to the effort by picking up trash every time I went out the door. I know I looked ridiculous with a plastic bag (compostable!) attached to my waist and work gloves on as I walked down the sidewalk, but I was nonetheless pretty gob-smacked with how much litter I picked up on each journey. In my 15-minute walk to work, and this is in one of Canada's "cleanest" cities, I always collected at least half a pound of stuff people had thoughtlessly tossed aside. The Pep...

"Uh, Earth to Matilda. I was at a day spa. Day. D-A-I-Y-E. Okay?" Derek Zoolander pretty much set the standard for non-manly men, but he sure knew how to pamper himself. As a big hairy ape-man, I decided I would do the same for a week, pretty much following Derek's lead and starting with the spa. Manscape Spa in downtown Victoria Manscape is the only all-male spa west of Toronto and north of San Francisco. Owner-operator Doug Janczyn is an ex-investment broker who's been offering manicures, pedicures and more for 10 years, and he's just an overall great guy. He took one look at my fingernails, which I had clipped way too short and decided he could not give me good value on a manicure. So he suggested a few other pampering procedures: an eyebrow sculpt and a pedicure. Now, why would a dude want that kind of stuff? Doug explained that the sculpting would give me the appearance of being more alert, and there are all kinds of health benefits to a p...

"As long as the roots are not severed, all is well. And all will be well in the garden." Anyone who has seen Peter Sellers in Being There knows all about the seemingly profound statements delivered by Chauncey Gardner. But the fact is, Chauncey was right. All will be well in the garden. I spent the past 7 days puttering in the garden and planting a bunch of herbs. There's something about getting soil under your fingernails, and about setting those plants in a tidy row that strikes an elemental chord in all of us. It's earthy, and it's real. Gardening is enjoying a re-birth these days, thanks to the millennial foodies and environmentalists who see all kinds of goodness sprouting from the ground beneath their feet. I've made some half-hearted attempts in the past, so the first thing I had to ask myself was what kind of garden I wanted. For me, it has to be herbs. Flowers are just kinda showy, and vegetables seem like more effort than they're worth....

"The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting for the steak to cook." I think Julia Child may have been promoting the keto diet without even knowing it. For those of you who haven't jumped on the keto bandwagon (yes, both of you!) it's the no-carb diet that sends you in search of a nirvana state called ketosis. Once you're in it, the pounds come dripping off. You get to heavy up on the meat and the high-fat high-protein foods like avocados and eggs. Seems delicious, right? Well, here was my experience over 7 days of being on it. Fat-head pizza So, the maybe-not-so-surprising news is that the keto diet works. Val and I were very strict about following the no-carb program and I went into ketosis early in the week. I know it was mostly "water weight" but it sure felt good to see those winter pounds just blow off my body. By the end of the week (yup, in just seven days!) I had lost a full 7 pounds, down from 184 to 177. But all is n...

"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." Thanks for the great advice, P.J. O'Rourke! I think it's fair to say I followed that rule all week, with an added twist. I spent at least half an hour every night reading aloud. Sometimes in a silly voice. Sometimes until I knew from the evidence that my audience had drifted off to sleep. But why aloud when there are no children in the room? There are already so many great reasons for reading aloud to your kids. Now research into reading aloud is suggesting that we should keep on doing it long after the child-rearing years are behind us. The number one reason is memory improvement, which might even delay the onset of Alzheimer's. I'm all for that! We used to read to our kids all the time. My favourite was Winnie the Pooh, which gave me a chance to try out all my Disney voices. I flatter myself that my Eeyore is spot-on. But it's been at least 10 years since our ...