Letter from Calgary

FAMILY SCENE

It's all very well writing about life on the road and life with the Joneses. Life with the Bensons is a bit trickier. It's closer to home, in a manner of speaking. For blog readers unfamiliar with the clan, let me expand. In the days of yore, the Calgary Bensons used to be one family. But time moved on, they all grew up and settled down - and now they're four families.

There's my brother, Kevin, and his wife, Ann, who live in a lovely home in DeWinton on the southern outskirts of the city. They also live in their motor-home at a retreat in California and at other times they're on the road. But that's another story.

NASH HOME

Then there's their daughter, Penny, businessman husband Mike (Nash), and boys, Jackson and Wyatt. They have been staying with K&A in DeWinton for a couple of months while the Nash home, a few miles north, undergoes extensive renovations. We went to take a look and the renovations met with our full approval albeit that the house is an inch thick under sawdust.

MINDY

After Penny comes Mark, wife Mindy, and children, Connor, Ethan and (baby) Megan. They also live not far away in a suburb of Calgary. The parents are both qualified pilots but right now they are more concerned with academic studies and raising the kids.

ALAN & SARAH with Mindy's baby MEGAN

Finally, there's Alan, wife Sarah, and daughters, Rachel and Esther. Their house too is 15 minutes down the road. Alan's in real estate. Sarah keeps herself pretty busy on the daughter front, with her two small girls and a third on the way. Of course, they all do masses of other things but I'm confining myself to minimalist descriptions.

One of the features of the Calgary Bensons (I'm treating Penny as a Benson) is their love of their motor cars. They are exceedingly fond of their automobiles, all of them. Boring! Boring says Jones. But seeing that I'm a car fan myself, and have some good pictures, you'll have to bear with me.

Kevin and Ann met us at the airport on our arrival in a spanking new Mercedes that was barely out of the box. He tried to pass it off as the car he'd had the year before but I was having none of it, especially as the previous Merc was a different size and colour. It's Ann's new car, as it turned out. She is delighted with it and little wonder!

Kevin's car is an Audi RS4. For the uninitiated, RS4s are racing cars in road car guise. Kevin loves his RS4 and, if you have any sense, you'll admire it and close its doors with great care. The suspension is a trifle hard for those of us with bad backs but it's a great car for going places in a hurry. There's a beeper thing on the windscreen that looks for traffic cops and zaps them with a death-ray if they are bothersome.

Beside Kevin's RS4 in the garage (for the moment) is Mike's RS4. Mike also doesn't believe in wasting time on the road. He likes to get home to the family and to watch the (ice) hockey games on TV. He can occasionally be heard grumbling about all the slow drivers who impede his progress.

Penny likes cars just as much as Mike. Only she likes them big; the bigger the better. She graduated up through a couple of 4x4s to a Yukon (Obama-size) that she loves dearly....though not so dearly that she doesn't fancy an even larger Merc.

Mark has just acquired a snazzy BMW in lieu of a truck that he found a bit of a brute for commuting. He acquired the truck to haul a large caravan around on camping-style holidays. The truck remains in the wider family for the continued hauling of the caravan and trailers. These vehicles live in a warehouse in Calgary.

TRUCK & TRAILER

I'm ashamed to say that I didn't note what Alan was driving although I can assure you that his taste is just as refined. Mindy and Sarah both use 7-seater family vehicles, ideal for hauling children around in safety seats.

Then there's also Kevin's motor-home (an RV to Americans) and the Chrysler Jeep it tows. Kevin is never happier than when he's on the road.

ANN & BARBARA

If you think I'm making a lot of fuss about cars, you probably don't know the family very well. Also, it gives me the opportunity to stick up lots of photos on the blog.

KITCHEN SCENE

Because the Nashes were occupying the guest suite in DeWinton, Kev and Ann put us up at a hotel in the nearby town of Okotoks. Like all the Calgary hotels, our hotel was full. We counted ourselves lucky to get such accommodation because several thousand oil-men were in town for a conference, so were the horsey fraternity who had poured in to watch the equestrian events at Spruce Meadows, just down the road.

Visitors who'd failed to book early had to trek miles out of town to find anywhere to lay their heads. Ours was a friendly and comfortable hotel, all the more because Ann had stocked our room to the nines with every conceivable treat.

Our hire car was equally comfortable; it's the first convertible I've driven. I preferred to drive it with the roof over my head although, at the press of a button, the roof folded itself up and packed itself into the boot (trunk). All in all we were very comfortable indeed.

BARBARA & KEVIN

During our six days in Calgary we didn't really do a lot. There wasn't a lot we wanted to do. Most days we'd drift over to DeWinton mid-morning or mid-afternoon for conversation, a trip to the shops, a meal, more conversation and maybe a walk.

Our favourite walks were two hour-long loops that took us around the houses in the community. They were all big, fine houses although many of the designs failed to win us over. It's just a matter of taste.

COWBOYS & CROOKS

The custom in that part of the world is to lay (lots of) turf around one's house, plant trees and cultivate (mainly) modest gardens. The snow that covers Calgary for half the year doesn't encourage extensive gardening. Most houses have few fences or none at all.

PLAYING IN WOODS BEHIND HOUSE

Some gardens run down to the woods, others to a lake. Bird calls fill the air. The occasional deer wanders by. Coyotes roam the hills. All in all DeWinton is a great place to live. We liked it lots.

BARBARA & PENNY

If there was one disadvantage to staying down the road, it was the need to drive back in a state of excessive sobriety to the hotel each evening. To welcome us, my brother had acquired two fine malt whiskies and some delectable wines, to which I did rather less justice than I might in other circumstances. It was just one of those things. A brush with the law was the last thing I wanted.

On our final evening, Kevin and Ann had all the family around to a magnificent spread. The sun had returned after a soggy few days and we all sat out under brollies on the back patio (porch) for some serious and not so serious conversation while they kids ran around the garden playing cops and robbers before coming in to watch a movie.

And so the days passed.

KEVIN & BABY MEGAN

On Saturday morning our hosts ran us out to the airport and bade us farewell.

Our return trip was anything but smooth, as you may judge. Just about everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

13.00: Calgary: Our Westjet flight to Toronto is delayed by 90 minutes. We wonder if we'll make our Air Canada connection to Frankfurt.
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20.00: Toronto: Scramble to collect our baggage and catch the transit to Terminal 1.
Good news! We make the connection!
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24.00: Toronto: Bad news! Stuck on the plane for 2 hours while all the bags are removed from the hold to find the luggage of a passenger who has been arrested and isn't coming with us.
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WATCHING SOCCER - FRANKFURT

13.00: Frankfurt: Bad news! Arrive 2 hours late and (like dozens of fellow passengers) miss our connection. Rerouted to Faro via Lisbon. Warn house-sitters that we'll be arriving 7 hours late.

Good news! We get a meal voucher and watch soccer over salads.
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19.00: Frankfurt. Bad news. No sign of the plane that's meant to fly us to Lisbon in a few minutes. Sure hope we make the Faro connection.
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AT LAST

19.07: Plane arrives. Things looking up.
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22.00:(BST) Arrive Lisbon late. Turbulent landing. Good news. Minibus meets us and drops us at lounge for final leg to Faro.
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23.15: Emerge into Faro terminal to find Margaret in wheelchair. We learn that she broke her ankle during the first day of her stay and has been confined to the chair ever since. She assures us that she still had a good holiday. Hoo boy!
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Espargal: Midnight. Good news! We're home! Delirious welcome from dogs.