Nearly twenty years ago, when I started my first office job, the person assigned to train me confidently assured me that, “in a year or two, this office will be completely paperless.” The corporation I worked for was just in the process of installing its first computer system with a terminal at every employee’s desk…. Read more »
Since I have lived in British Columbia, one of the things that has become synonymous with Fall for me is walking through rain saturated forests in search of wild mushrooms. This annual autumnal ritual is something that my husband introduced me to on a weekend trip to the West Coast of Vancouver Island. After fifteen… Read more »
“In the new information society, where the only constant is change, we can no longer expect to get an education and be done with it. There is no one education, no one skill that lasts a lifetime now. Like it or not, the information society has turned us all into lifelong learners.” This quote is… Read more »
When I was a child, except for a few bouts of ideologically inspired vegetarianism in my teen years, I never gave too much thought to the food that I put in my stomach. Going to McDonald’s after swimming or basketball practice seemed like the ideal, tasty way to get my blood sugar levels back to… Read more »
As far as I’m concerned, there is no better time of year to be cosily ensconced in the kitchen than late September onward. At this time, the gradual shortening of the days, a process that began right after the June 21st summer solstice, begins to make itself apparent and the air is becoming more crisp… Read more »
I’m writing this column minutes after finishing wrapping a cheese sandwich and some oatmeal raisin cookies in preparation for my daughter’s first day of grade three. As I wrote in last week’s column, there is something about the prospect of autumn rapidly coming upon us that seems to put a charge of energy and excitement… Read more »
As I was going for a brisk walk along the banks of the Fraser River early yesterday morning, I felt a refreshing light rain falling against my arms, and a crisp northerly wind was blowing into my face and dislodging the cobwebs from my brain. Most importantly, the unmistakable smell of approaching autumn was in… Read more »
Like many of the women I know, I went through a couple of phases when I was younger during which I decided that I would be a lifelong confirmed vegetarian. Once or twice, I became fairly militant about it, and stopped eating cheese and eggs. Growing up in Alberta, surrounded by cattle farmers and hunters,… Read more »
What does success mean to you? For me, it has always been a moving target. When I was a young girl, a successful day involved the arrival of the ice cream truck at the playground in town. Later on, it meant getting A’s in math class, making the cut for the basketball team, and being… Read more »
When I first discovered Asian cooking ingredients like lemongrass and ginger, it was as though I were a child who had found a whole new spectrum of colours inside her paint box. Ingredients like galangal and tamarind, found in the bins and on the shelves of Asian grocery stores, are inexpensive, packed with exotic flavour,… Read more »