I haven’t made a blog entry in 3 months..  As far as work is concerned, it might be easier to just quickly list all of the activities that I have been up to this summer:

-Wellness Jubilee @ the Peter Lougheed Centre
-RED FM IDOL - Calgary (CTD Concert)

-Multicultural Day Celebration @ Genesis Centre
-Canada Day live broadcast
-Stampede Breakfast, live broadcast
-RED FM Walk & Run Vancouver
-ICAA Track & Field Meet
-RED FM Multicultural IDOL (CTD Concert)
-Jazzy B Concert @ Jack Singer Theatre
-Arab Fest
-RED FM Walk & Run Calgary

I’m hoping to get them both into skating lessons this winter, we’ll see how that turns out!

It’s been a while since I have had a chance to do another blog entry, as I’ve quite literally had no time to spare.  I find myself alone on an aircraft flying back to Calgary from Vancouver with my laptop handy, so what better time to catch up!

With the provincial elections approaching in April, we decided to do a “town hall” style debate for the McCall riding in Calgary NE.  I literally had one week to find a venue, organize the technicalities, plan the structure of the debate, then pull it off live on-air too.   The debate went off without any major issues and many people contacted us afterwards to tell us they enjoyed listening from their radios as well.  

The next week (On Tuesday), we decided to do a last minute radiothon with the Alberta/Canadian Red Cross, to raise funds for those affected by the earthquake in Nepal.  With very little time, we managed to get a fully functional, 10-line phone system operating, organized over 40 volunteers and staff, created and printed 4000 donation forms, planned and executed promotions and all on-air activities.  We met at 0730 on the Friday to organize and train the first wave of volunteers, and then kicked off at 0800 sharp!  Donations rolled in throughout the day and we kept at it until about 8 PM.  When we shut it down, we had accounted for $326,500.00 CAD.  As of today, we have reached about $350,000.00.  Radiothons are amazing to pull off but you have to be extremely well organized to avoid a catastrophe!

Finally, we still had Vaisakhi which was the following Saturday.  This year, we organized a more elaborate stage with speakers mounted up on 10’ scaffolding and a 350 meter analogue phone line for a reliable broadcast solution. We strategically scheduled live cut ins from the parade route, which were then also broadcast live onto our stage and on-air.  Our hosts were able to communicate live to air with the reporters from the festival and back to the studio.  The turnout at Vaisakhi this year was about 30,000 people; at times our stage had literally thousands of people in front of it.  We had a fair number of live performances in addition to our heavy broadcast schedule and managed to pull off another $5000 giveaway contest to cap the day off.  When you plan major events, you need to ensure that you are mindful of also planning the post-event tear down!  Set up for Vaisakhi started at 0600 and I finally reached home to my extremely patient family at around 8 PM on Saturday.  Waheguru (as they say!)

Three major events in 3 weeks, my poor family!  Now that the dust has settled a little, I have been enjoying time with my amazing boys and wife.  I am the luckiest man I know and every hardship I have ever known has been all worth it to find myself where I am today.  We gave Coltrane a bike with no training wheels and he was riding up and down the street immediately.  Putting him on the strider bike last year was the key to getting him rolling on an actual bike so quickly.  Adderley is now riding the strider bike and quickly getting the hang of it!  We are also enrolling Coltrane into BMX lessons here in Airdrie, as he seems to be so into bikes!  We are looking forward to summer and many more adventures.. Winnipeg in July and back to BC in August!

My lovely wife Amber treated me to a 40th birthday trip to New Orleans to watch as much jazz as we could possibly fit into 4 days. It all started with a flight to Vancouver to drop the boys off with the grandparents.  Visiting both families was so nice and the boys just adore their grandparents too.  Amber and I flew off to New Orleans early Monday morning and were eating great Cajun food and sampling great wine in a dark jazz club by Monday evening!  The short trip was filled with music, food and a couple of amazing runs through the French Quarters. There are not many cities in North American that truly have hundreds of years of rich culture. I <3 NOLA 

Adderley turned 2 years old in March.  He is talking and displaying quite a personality.  Adderley loves to entertain; we are beginning to think that he will be an actor.  Coltrane is showing clear signs of a love of music.  We hope to have him in music lessons by the time he turns 4 this year.  We already have his next birthday gift purchased, a set of authentic, child sized drums.

Work has been extremely busy with Vaisakhi Calgary ramping up very quickly along with about 10 other events that require advance planning.  I don’t think that there is a more practical skill for any manager than organization.  I am grateful for the “Importance vs. Urgency” time management system that I learned years ago from the book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”  (Thanks Stephen!)

January is already gone, we’re mid-way through February and 40 feels pretty good!  This winter has been a lot easier than we anticipated.  Short stretches of cold weather are bearable, especially with all the sunshine.  I don’t really believe in resolutions however one change that I have made this year is waking up between 5-6am on weekdays to read and research.  It’s just too easy to stay up late doing nothing in particular then sleep till the last possible moment accomplishing nothing in the process.  Now mornings are my “alone time” and it is quite refreshing to get caught up reading the things that interest me.  I’ve been going to a 6am hot yoga class every Tuesday since December and I am fully addicted to it.  I cannot understand why more people don’t do yoga, it is so physically and mentally restoring.  Amber and I went to couple’s yoga for our Valentine’s Day date; it was nice but light on the romance and heavy on the sweat!

I am enjoying watching the boys grow up so fast.  Adderley is now starting to speak and quickly becoming a chatter box like his brother!  Adderley is also starting to catch up with Coltrane physically so they are able to play together more regularly.  I brought Coltrane to a Fred Penner concert which I was quite excited about.  Coltrane seems to be more of a Wiggles fan than Fred Penner but hanging out with the boys is always fun.

I joined the Westwinds Business Park Strata Board and became the president 2 weeks ago.  As an organization, we wanted to know more about what is happening in the complex and where the money is being spent.  The first 2 weeks have been a whirlwind as I am quickly uncovering all of the on-going problems that haven’t been dealt with.  I am happy to handle the responsibilities as I want to increase my facilities management experience. Hopefully I don’t end up regretting it ;)

Amber and I are heading off to New Orleans to celebrate my 40th and I am so excited about the opportunity to visit the birthplace of Jazz.  New Orleans for me is like Disney Land for a kid, there are just so many things that I want to see and do.  Hopefully Amber will be able to handle the “Jazz Overload” that I am going to inflict upon the her.  After that, we roll right into Vaisakhi!

I just turned 40 years old.  Ouch!  Actually, turning 28 was much more of a psychological awakening.  28 made me realize that I wasn’t a child anymore and for 6 months; I lay in bed thinking about getting older.  The only real day that felt strange this year was the day before my birthday as it was the last day in my life that I would be in my 30s.  God, did my 30’s ever blow by fast!  Anyway, all is well.

Cold and flu germs seem to be stronger than ever this winter.  Our whole family has been fighting off one cold after another since October.  We flew to BC to visit family this Christmas and brought our colds with us.  When we left, both sets of parents were sick!  I managed to go on 4 huge runs while in BC; I miss being able to run outside in the winter!  The trip out West was a lot of fun, Amber and I also managed to get away to Seattle for a couple of days, super nice.

We pulled off a successful Toy Drive at RED this year in cooperation with The Calgary Bridge Foundation for Youth.  Lohri came and went which meant more contesting.  Programming is doing well; we have all slots accounted for with talented and eager hosts.  Vaisakhi is just around the corner, this will mark the 20th time that I have participated in the event.