A Little Bit About Me -- Personally

The Early Years

I was born in Accra, Ghana to an Officer in the Canadian Army and his British wife. I have no recollection of living there but I think those were some of the best days of my father’s life. Some day I hope to go back there with him. After a childhood of biannual moves throughout Canada and overseas postings to Rome, Italy and Lahr, Germany, my parents were posted to Oslo, Norway and I ended up in school in the tiny town of Clevedon, England. Those were some of the worst days of my life; it was an all girls boarding school and I was sixteen years old! But the holidays in Oslo more than made up for it.

On the bright side, after a year of intense study, I was accepted into the Business Administration program at the University of New Brunswick at the tender age of seventeen. Four years later I graduated with a Bachelor of Arts and knocked around Fredericton, New Brunswick for a couple of years until I managed to get into Law School. Along the way I met a wonderful boy who would become my husband and the father of my two children.

I live in Ottawa, the capital of Canada. I own a big old (circa 1860) house; there is a timber barn and a stone ice house on the property. I have two cats.

Things I Like

I like to travel. One of my favourite trips was in the summer of 1989 when my husband and I crossed into the “East” at Check Point Charlie and made our way by train from Berlin to Budapest. That was the summer that the cold war ended, all hell was breaking lose in the eastern block countries and we were in the thick of it. We saw the lineups at the US embassy in Prague but little did we know until we got to Budapest and were able to read about it in the English papers. I’ve been back to Berlin twice, on business, and while unification is wonderful, I will never forget the days I spend in East Berlin.

Another fantastic trip was in the summer of 2007 when we went to Chile and Peru; Chile for skiing/snowboarding and Peru for the Amazon and the Gringo (aka Bingo) trail (they play Bingo on the buses). It was an awesome five weeks of family fun.

I like to read. I am a voracious reader with very few scruples; I’ll read almost anything. My favourite genre is the spy novel (hence Check Point Charlie above) which I was introduced to in an English course at University – the literature of fear and suspense. Oddly, I do not belong to a book club but I do belong to a movie club. While at University I was a projectionist and have always loved the big screen.

I like to bake – cakes, cookies, squares, breads. I don’t like to cook.

I snowboard (I used to ski) and play Ultimate Frisbee. Every summer we do at least one canoe camping trip – we used to do up to ten days, lately it’s just been four/five day trips.