Sweet Cheat Treats

Sometimes I am in awe of how creative children can be. Take Margot for instance. Lately she's been doing a lot of assignments that require her to film a video about a particular topic. I'm pretty sure that the teacher would be satisfied with a basic presentation that explains the subject matter in a clear and concise way. In some cases, the subject matter is actually even irrelevant as what is being graded is the grammar and ability to explain complex ideas clearly. Again, you don't need to come up with anything too fancy to do that.

But little Margot - wow she always wants to go the extra mile for Madame (her teacher). Check out what she did for her latest English project entitled "Sweet Cheat Treats":

Pretty good! Amazingly she put this all together in one evening (Glosette Girl and yours truly helped with the filming).

There is something poetic (beyond the obvious poetry!) about how she did that assignment. I can't quite put my finger on it but I think it's a result of her being completely bilingual. She just explains things in a way that isn't quite how someone who is purely anglophone would do it. 

But I like it! Get me some of those Sweet Cheat Treats!

Look How Far We've Come

How much do you think about Covid-19 these days?

For me it barely registers in my mind anymore. I still follow any mandatory protections, but wow is it amazing how much it doesn't dictate my life. And from what I see on a daily basis, I'm guessing more and more people feel that way.

Need proof? I participated in a 5K run in the Ottawa Race weekend last Saturday along with...oh 4000 or so other participants.

I'm the one in the back wearing the racing shorts.

I haven't been in a crowd that large in forever. And it wasn't just the number of participants. The whole route was lined with spectators. Fortunately I had my cheer squad!

I normally prefer smaller races, but it was still a fun and festive (and hot) atmosphere. And did I mention how hot it was? I was not looking or feeling very pretty by the end of the run but I made it.

Ah there I am. Hey, get outta the photo, red top!

I really do get a sense that despite all the ups and downs, we've put covid-19, in the sense of something that dictates how most of us live, behind us. It probably has a few tricks left under it's sleeve but if thousands of maskless people running at the same time isn't noteworthy anymore, I have a positive feeling about the future.

Road Rage? No, Bike Sundays!

Oi! Guess what?

I did another "first" this past weekend? For the first time ever, I went for a bike ride down the Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway for the NCC's Bike Sunday weekly event. Woohoo!

This was actually a pretty big deal for me because for all the 20 or so years I've lived in Ottawa, I've  been annoyed that on Sundays the city closes down key routes in the city so people can cycle around. If you don't own a bike it's really frustrating!

Well last year, as I blogged about, I bought a good bike. And this past weekend, I finally had a good window of opportunity to go exploring on my Trek FX 2. It was pretty sweet actually. Even though I was gone less than an hour I was easily able to bike down the parkway to the Champlain bridge and back (so maybe 8 km). And I must say - wow do these new hybrid bikes go fast, especially when there is no car traffic to share the road with! I'm hoping later this summer to get on the road with Margot so she can experience the fun.

So cross that one off my bucket list. 

I'm still not 100% sold on this closing down key routes idea but now that I can participate I think I can survive these Sunday shutdowns. As for the current pilot project of closing the main road up Gatineau Park to non-motorized vehicles most days during the week...that's another story.