Winter fun-time

Depending on where you're living, you may have been a bit cold this week. Much of Canada, Britain, the US, and Europe have been much colder than usual.

Where I'm living, that meant temperatures going down to lows of -40*C with wind chill. To put that into perspective, have a look at this video. It's so cold that boiling water instantly freezes upon contact with air. It's cold.

So to put it mildly, I've been staying inside.

The upside of this cold weather, however, is that Ottawa's famous Rideau Canal skateway fully opened yesterday, and the conditions are fantastic.

If you're not familiar with the Rideau Canal, it's original purpose was to connect Ottawa and Kingston, to facilitate communications and movement of troops between the old and new Canadian capitals. To say the least, it no longer serves this purpose. Instead, every autumn the canal water is drained to a lower level, carefully monitored until it freezes, then opens as the "world's large skating rink", with a length of 7.8 kilometers, and a size equivalent of about 90 Olympic ice hockey rinks (all numbers taken from Wikipedia).

The canal is incredibly well maintained, and posts regular updates about ice conditions. It has food stalls, rest areas, roving paramedics, skate rentals, and heated changing chalets.

And the best part? It's COMPLETELY free to the public (skate rentals and food aside)!

I was so happy this morning when I woke up and checked the weather forecast (about -20, so pretty reasonable), and ice conditions (good!). I packed up my thermos of hot chocolate, a pack lunch, and my skates, and headed off to the canal.

 This is the first time I've been on the canal for over 6 years, and it felt really good to be back! There's something lovely about skating along on a frozen body of water, surrounded by children just learning to skate, families taking their sick relative out for a day (you can rent sleds or bring your own), people using all types of skates, from figure skates, to speed skates, to hockey skates, to sledges.

 The most important things to remember when you're skating on the Rideau Canal are:

- bring a back-pack to carry your boots, food, etc, and any layers you might want to remove
- bring water!
- bring extra layers, just in case
- have fun!


Got my skates on and I'm ready to go!

I paid a quick visit to my former primary school. A yearly school activity was always a night-time scavenger hunt on the canal. Fun for the whole family (except my mum, who couldn't skate... but that's ok! You can walk on the canal too!)

There are these little rest-stops along the way, where you can get hot drinks, beaver tails, and other snacks. Or just have a little rest! I needed to sit down at this point because I had tied my skates too tight. Muscle pain and shin splints ensued. So I stopped, let my muscles relax, then re-tied my skates a bit looser. (In this photo, you can also see a child-carrier - these are normally pulled behind bicycles, but are really handy to push your kids or your stuff on the ice, too!)

After about an hour, I reached Dow's lake - just about the furthest edge of the canal. This is where I had my lunch and turned around. It's about 5km away from where I started.

Lunch time! A thermos full of hot chocolate, a peanut butter sandwich, an orange in slices, and a piece of Christmas cake. This was my little way of trying to defeat the urge to have a BeaverTail. It worked, but mostly because I didn't have enough cash for one.






After a half-hour skate, I was back again! (I tied my skates properly this time, so no need to pause to ease my muscles). Tired, sore, but happy :)

One of the reasons I wanted to post this is because, for me, it's proof that you don't need a gym membership to be physically active. Ottawa is a fantastic place for outdoor physical exercise. In the winter there's the canal, but in the summer there's an incredible network of dedicated bike paths, and lots of open areas. These outdoor spaces are my gym, no membership required!

What outdoor activities are available in your area? Do you take advantage of them?

Tip #15 - Fun for free

I got really annoyed the other day by a commercial for a new board game called "telestrations". It's currently retailing at about ₤20. It involves one person picking a word or common phrase and drawing a picture of it, then passing it to the next person, who guesses the word or phrase and passes to the next person, who draws a picture based on that guess, and so on. 

What annoyed me so much is that my friend Michelle taught me how to play this game using a ripped piece of paper folded like an accordian and a pencil, and I've used it in ESL classes as a fun way to teach certain verb tenses or idioms. It costs absolutely nothing, yet some company is trying to copyright it and charge a rediculous amount of money for it! So I started thinking about what other fun group activities I've played which cost nothing (many of which have since been copyrighted by greedy toy companies). Most of these won't be a surprise to many, but in an increasingly commercialized world I thought it would be nice to compile some of the more simple joys of large gettogethers. Perhaps this list can be useful for free family fun this Christmas!

Charades: Physically acting out a common word or short phrase or idiom. Talking is not allowed. If you've somehow never heard of charades, look on youtube for some hilarious examples. 

Possible variations: Either the group gets together to write various phrases on bits of paper, and the person who's "in" picks one out at random, or (as my boyfriend insists is the correct way) if someone has an idea they just "have a go". It can also be played as a competitive team game or a free-for-all.

Pictionary: Similar to charades, but instead of physically acting out a word or phrase, it is drawn. No words are allowed, either spoken or written. There is usually a time limit, but this may be forfeited when small children are playing.

Possible variations: Same as above; Using an easle, whiteboard or chalkboard for a bigger picture; Using plasticine to create 3D models of the word or phrase.

Who am I?: Everyone writes the name of a famous person on a sticky note, and are randomly assigned to place the sticky note on another player's head. Each player then has to ask yes/no questions to find out who the famous person is.

Possible variations: You could do certain categories, such as athletes, politicians, etc.; Playing in teams, where, like charades or pictionary, the player pulls a famous person out of a hat and has to describe them to their team; 

20 Questions: The player thinks of a noun (proper or not), and answers up to 20 yes/no questions until the group figures out what they have thought of. If they get to 20 questions without guessing correctly, the player wins.

Possible variations: "He(She)'s a he(she) and he(she)'s dead/alive" My Mum's family used to play this one when she was a kid, essentially 20 Questions but narrowing to only famous people.

Categories: We played this in English class. Grade 12 English class, to be exact, and yes at age 17/18 it was awesome fun. Players sit in a circle (or some sort of identifyable order). Each player in turn names something in a specific category, such as items of clothing, fruit, animals, etc. Too much pausing results in the person being "out" and a new category being chosen.

Possible variations: Alphabetized, where each sequential item has to be the next letter of the alphabet (ex: Apple - Banana - etc); Clappng game version, where a pattern is started before the start of the game - in English class, we used *knee slapp*knee slapp*clap*clap*snap*snap* - during the *snap*snap* section of the pattern was the time where the individual had to state their contribution

Hide-and-seek: this requires a big enough house or outdoor area, and areas such as the kitchen should probably be out of bounds for the kids, but it provides hours of entertainment for kids of all ages! The player who is "it" counts to 100 while the remaining ones hide. They then find all the remaining players. The last player found is the new "it".

Possible variations: Sardines, basically reverse hide-and-seek, where the player who is "it" hides and the remaining players have to find them. By the end of the game, there are usually limbs flying everywhere and some very squished people and loads and loads of giggles! 

Stay tuned over the next few weeks for some more Christmas treats (although I won't post my actual Christmas presents until after Christmas to avoid anyone on my list catching wind of my plans!)